Life at the Wilderness School
by Bookworm1756
Summary: "Without warning, Hera had plucked up Percy Jackson, wiped his memory, and sent him to the Roman camp. In exchange, the Greeks got Jason." But what if Hera had been reluctant, and the two heroes were never switched? What would happen to the prophecies, Gaea's war, and how would this change the lives of our heroes?
1. PROLOGUE

**Hey guys! ****Decided to start a new story! YAY! *throws dance party and everyone starts celebrating***

**Disclaimer: Not Rick. DEALS WITH IT.**

**(And a short PS; this story has no swearing, but it has cut-off swearing. Like, "Holy sh-!" No cuss word was said because for some reason or another the speaker wasn't able to finish. Just a warning. But the story's still K+)**

**ENJOY!**

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**Leo**

"Order! Order to the court!"

Leo Valdez fidgeted impatiently in his seat at the front of the small courtroom. He tried to tell himself to sit perfectly still and wait patiently for the session to begin, but with every passing second this rule was becoming harder and harder to obey. (He was ADHD, okay? These kinds of things are difficult.)

The first three rows of benches in this particular courtroom were full of observers—his sixth foster family, friends of his sixth foster family, and what Leo believed to be a class of tenth graders on a field trip for Government Class. (This didn't reassure him much.)

In the front row, Leo's sixth foster father—Mr. Scholer—sat beside their hired lawyer, Jack Stephens. Leo gritted his teeth every time he thought of him, always tempted to pull out some epic back-pocket machine gun and to start shooting random heads. Stephens shared the same hatred for Leo that Leo did for him. He always somehow ended up being the lawyer against his case, and somehow always won.

"We are gathered here today to discuss what will become of Leo Valdez, son of Esperanza Valdez, now deceased," started the jury or judge or whatever his proper name was. Leo never actually remembered—never really bothered—so he simply referred to him as That-Annoying-Fat-Guy-In-A-Dress-That-Plays-With-H ammers.

(It's the ADHD again.)

After more of his useless chitchat, he finally announced that Stephens would be able to start since Leo didn't have a lawyer and no one bothered pay one for him. (Would someone anyway?) After a long stalling glass of water that made Leo clench his fists beneath the table, Stephens stood up and began to pace in front of Annoying Dress.

"We may all know that the subject in question has run away from the Scholer family," he started. Leo scowled and pictured a sledgehammer coming down on a puppy, and restrained himself from yelling out, "And now I'm just a subject?"

"...But we all may not be aware of the fact that Leo Valdez has in fact run away not only once, not even twice, but five continuous times beforehand. Once when he was ten, again at eleven, thirteen, fourteen, and just seven months ago was the fifth. Now the kind and indebted Scholer family have taken up the task of fostering the meagre, orphaned boy for ten months, and yet he has run away yet another time, just five workdays ago." Stephens glanced up and smiled just a little more than maliciously at Leo.

_Picture the bazooka, Leo. Imagine it blowing off this stupid guy's head along with his stupid negative 9000th Century vocabulary. Man, how I hate formal terminology. Especially that time in grade five—_

_Focus, Leo, focus!_

Another thought hit him.

_Wait, what did he call me? Meagre? What does that even mean? Does it… does it mean that I'm not enough? God, I really hate him now. I mean, I hated him before, but this has just gotten much more than serious and personal. I think. Have we already crossed that line? Because I remember this one time in grade two that I thought my best friend—_

_Leo. Control the ADHD. Now, breathe in… Breathe out…_

"What for?" Stephens continued. "For what purpose?" He turned to the infinitesimal and uninterested crowd, then back to Leo again.

"Why?" he asked, taking steps closer with every word he spoke. "Why are you such a disturbed child? All your foster families were nice. They cared for you—and yet you run away. All your teachers all complain about how low grades you get, especially in English. Don't tell me there's a reason, boy. I did some research, and the only disease you have is ADHD."

"Whoa," interrupted Leo. "Back up. First of all, ADHD isn't a disease. It's a disorder."

_Like you'd know the difference, El Stupido._

Stephens didn't say anything for a while, as if asking Leo, _Do you dare question me? _Finally he corrected himself a little cruelly, "A disorder."

"And second," Leo continued. "I mean, stalkers are hardcore, man. Like, they've got tuxedoes and black sunglasses... or maybe those are the men in black... but either way they're all scars and mysterious back-pocket pistols and creepy phone calls in the middle of the night telling you 'I know where you live' and stuff. They're _cool. _I don't think you're up for the task if you're just gonna blurt my entire life's story out for show-and-tell without even _trying _blackmail first."

"Oh, so now I'm a stalker?!" roared Stephens. "For doing my job?" He looked at Fat Robes with an incredulous expression on his face that Leo was pretty sure only he could catch as fake.

"Okay, look," continued Leo, emphasizing his point with his hands (which were bound together with strong metal handcuffs). "I'm a troubled kid. As well as an awesome one. I admit that. But I've lived a hard life. I have ADHD, like you just politely stalkerized, but my mom also died when I was eight; how could I _not _be emotionally unstable inside?" Leo pounded his chest softly with his hands. "Like, really, dude. Have a heart for some kid whose mom died and never knew his father."

"She didn't die!" roared Stephens, and before Leo could point out that of course his mom was dead, he added, "You killed her! That's why you're a troubled kid. He killed her!" He yelled the last part out to the small audience.

"Wow, dude," said Leo. "I wish someone was filming this. This is _intense."_

"They say she died in a fire," Stephens started.

"Sure, say that," said Leo, leaning back in his seat boringly.

"I say she did!"

"Oh, and you _just _figured this out?"

"But the rumours say that _you_ started that fire!" Stephens yelled, whirling around quickly and pointing a finger at Leo so close to his nose he had to look cross-eyed to be able to tell what it was. "I spoke to some old neighbours of yours, and they told me that you were always a strange kid. A child of the devil. Isn't that why your Aunt Rosa and her son Raphael didn't take you in? Because you're a devil of a child?" Stephens stood face to face with Leo. Leo was about to yawn sarcastically, something he knew for a fact that Stephens hated, but the lawyer was already moving away.

"So there we have it," finished Stephens. He turned toward Black-Robe. "I believe this concludes my rant," he said, turned and sat back down in his seat. If Leo had been an eight-year-old, he would have stuck out his tongue at him and possibly blown a raspberry.

"So I have no choice," said Fat Guy, pushing his half-moon glasses back up his fairly squat nose. "No foster home wants to take you. Nobody would _ever _adopt you, I'm sure. I have no choice. Juvie it is."

"_Anywhere_ but here," said Leo, leaning back in his seat. "Even if they don't serve tacos." As he rolled his eyes, he caught sight of Stephens glaring at him.

_Ha ha._

"Your honour, please hold to what I have to say," Stephens started. "There is a second option left." He paused, possibly for suspense. "The Wilderness School. I'm sure you've heard of it."

"I have indeed," confirmed Fat Guy, nodding his head once, causing the excessive chubbiness at his neck to ripple and grow more chins.

"You want to send me to a _zoo!?"_ Leo demanded, obviously concluding that The Wilderness School was one of those.

Stephens glared at him. _"School, _Leo. School." He turned back to Black Dress. "Why not send him there?" he continued politely. "Out of the way, where he can't hurt anyone. I'm sure the saty—I mean... _teachers_ there will take very good care of him."

The fat guy thought about it and rubbed his multiple chins, which for Leo looked way too cliché. "I don't know…" he started.

But Jack Stephens never lost an argument. After five minutes of persuading, it was decided that Leo would go to The Wilderness School, wherever in ever that was.

Stephens then excused himself from the Scholer family, saying that he was needed elsewhere. Leo turned to watch him disappear out the large door at the end of the room.

It was the last time Leo saw him in the mortal world. But they met again a few months later, at the place Leo and many others called Camp Half-Blood.

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**Piper**

"Hey, Cherokee girl!"

Piper turned to face the speaker. It was her father, and he didn't sound too pleased. "What?" she asked, annoyed. Tristan McLean—model, actor, and father of Piper McLean—smiled the smile that made girls fall in love with him instantly a little falsely.

"Good luck," he told her, a little censure in his voice. Piper pushed him away with both hands, seeing as they were handcuffed together.

"Good luck?" she demanded. "That's the best you can give me right now? I'm about to have a trial for something I didn't commit, and—"

"Piper," her father started, suddenly stern. "You stole a BMW."

If they were in a TV show, the spontaneous laughter that came from nowhere would have just been cued.

"I didn't steal it!" Piper objected, accommodating her protest with wild gestures of the hand.

"Ah, yes, I remember now," he father said disapprovingly. "It just sprouted legs and followed you home." He turned away from his one and only daughter and started his way back down the hall.

"Daddy!" Piper protested, walking after him. "I didn't steal it! I just—"

"Piper," Tristan said sternly, stopping and turning around to face his daughter. Piper stopped as well. "How do you think this makes me feel as a parent? To have their only child steal—_steal, _Piper, _steal—_something? It doesn't matter what it was, it's just the fact that you stole. I am very disappointed in you." He turned and stalked away.

Piper didn't follow him. She couldn't. Sighing, she let the big guards who had just witnessed the entire thing lead her into the courtroom.

The next hour passed as a blur. Piper was aware of her highly paid for lawyer defend her, but it just so happened that the BMW's owner had a very good lawyer as well. (He apparently took theft _very_ seriously.) The judge was fair either way, though—Mr. Stephens, if she remembered his name correctly, but the BMW's lawyer won.

Being as fair as he was, though, Mr. Stephens decided that Piper would not go to juvie—thank God—but to some school in the middle of nowhere for a year. Piper was glad that that was it—she could simply think of it as just another ordinary boarding school.

The handcuffs were taken off her, and she was allowed to go home with her father so that she could pack and say her goodbyes. In a week, she'd board a train that would take her to this boarding school, The Wilderness School. She didn't really like the name, though. It made her feel as if she were going to live at a zoo.

They didn't speak much to each other in that week, Piper and her father. Soon it was Sunday, and they had to leave for the train. Government officials knocked on their door at eleven in the morning to pick them up.

At the train station, Piper's father looked down at his daughter a bit sadly. "Bye," he said leaning down for a hug. A few people began to stare, but that was a normal thing for Piper and her father. People _always_ stared when Tristan McLean left the house.

"I love you," Piper whispered into her father's ear.

"Me too," he replied. "Just try not to steal more BMWs. Please."

Piper pulled away and opened her mouth to complain, but realized it was a joke and smiled gratefully.

She caught sight of someone boarding the train. He was a scrawny curly-haired boy her age. He had some black guy in a suit hovering behind him, as if waiting to catch him when he tried to make a run for it. All he used for carrying his stuff in was a black duffel bag that Piper could tell was half empty.

She boarded the train along with a few other students. She found a compartment to herself at the back of the train and sat down, resting her three bags beside her so that she could look out the window to see if she could spot her father. But he had already left.

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***psst* Hey, you. Yeah, you. See that review box below? I want you to write something in it, and post for the story. They'll be much appreciated. :)**


	2. Train Rides and Meetings

**Disclaimer: Not Rick**

**Thank you so much for the three people who reviewed-****_NotUrAverageMusician, WolfstarStories _****and ****_elliefs,_**** and all the other people who favourited or followed. This chapter is dedicated to those amazing people! Enjoy Chapter One!**

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**Leo**

Leo had a little difficulty finding a seat. Nobody wanted to sit with someone who had a government official hovering at his shoulder, so that turned out to be a problem, seeing that he was one of the only two kids that had one.

All the compartments were full anyway, he noticed as he peered through the windows on the doors as he dragged the duffel bag carrying his few possessions behind him.

Finally he reached the back of the train. There were no more compartments available to students like him left except for that one, just a little up ahead. He looked back down the hall to find everyone hurrying into his or her carts for the ride. He sighed and walked over to the compartment, knocking politely. When no one answered, he slid the door open a little and peered in.

There was only one person there—a girl maybe his age. Her dark brown hair was braided down just past her shoulders and she was wearing a dark blue bandana to keep loose strands of hair from falling to her face. She was wearing a bright yellow shirt with flowers patterned on it and ripped jeans, which was for some reason the trend of the season for girls. She sat on her legs, peering outside to the platform as if looking for someone.

"Is this compartment full?" Leo said. (It didn't hurt to ask. Maybe her friends were out and were just coming back.) She spun around, caught by surprise, but when she realized it was just him she shook her head. He smiled gratefully and dragged his bag under a seat, sitting down himself. His super-huge government guy left, closing the door behind him.

When the train pulled out of the station the girl finally gave up her search for the someone she was looking for, and sat down properly. She took out some headphones from her bag and connected them to a Samsung Galaxy touchscreen phone, bobbing her head to the music and staring out the window as the city rolled by them. Leo sat across the table from her, reading a thick novel he bought at the train station along with a mechanical bird that he hoped would keep him busy for a few months. Finally the girl spoke, slipping her headphones around her neck.

"What's you're name?" she asked, more out of habit than politeness. Leo looked up.

"Valdez," he announced regally, placing his book facedown on the table. "Leo Valdez." He pretended to adjust a nonexistent tie and bowed. The girl didn't show signs of amusement, but her voice lightened up slightly, if just by a bit.

"I'm Piper," she said. "Why are you here?"

"To go to school," said Leo. "Unless this is an academy where they send kids to be executed in secret and nobody told me." He leaned closer to her as if about to tell her a secret. "Between you and me, I think I prefer being knocked out in my sleep over starved or burned to a stake." He paused. "But maybe the burning thing wouldn't be so bad either. I mean, how hard could it hurt?"

"I didn't see any parents with you," she replied simply. "Just some government guy in a suit. Why are you going to The Wilderness School? Did you do something bad? Like, break the law?"

"Hmm... did I do something?" Leo repeated contemplatively, leaning back and stroking his chin thoughtfully. "You could say that." He sat up straight again, a thought just having hit him. "Did _you_ do something that _you _shouldn't have?"

"What?" asked the girl, Piper, taken by surprise. "No! I mean, I guess…"

"Come on," said Leo, leaning forward across the table that separated them and gesturing a hand at himself. "Tell Papa Valdez what young and meagre Pipes here did."

"Well, I... _wait a minute._ What does 'meagre' even mean?"

"No clue. But the lawyer against me in court said it, so I'm guessing it's something impolite."

"Lawyer against you?" Piper repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"If you want to know, you've gotta spill the beans first," explained Leo. "What did you do to end up here?"

Piper rolled her eyes and looked away, muttering something inaudible.

"What was that?" asked Leo, leaning across the table.

Piper repeated what she said a little louder, but still not enough for Leo to hear.

"Still can't hear you!" chanted Leo in his best imitation of a Sponge Bob pirate voice, sitting back again.

"Why do you care?" Piper exclaimed suddenly. Leo could hear the song _Viva la Vida _by Coldplay coming out through the speakers around her neck.

"Because you did for me," said Leo. "Look, I'll say what I did if you tell me what you did." When Piper didn't say anything and looked as if she were ready to grab her things and change compartments, he added, "See, I'll even go first, even though I said I wouldn't." He breathed in dramatically, and he caught Piper rolling her eyes. "...I ran away six times," he stated calmly, as if saying, _I work at a burger place and secretly make out with my girlfriend when my parents aren't home._

"You're orphaned?" asked Piper, her change of heart causing her eyes to suddenly grow large and decidedly warm.

"Yup," said Leo as casually as he could. "Mum died in a fire when I was eight."

"I'm so sorry," said Piper. She reached out a hand and placed it on top of Leo's caringly. "How did the fire start?" she asked.

Leo gave her a glare. "Really?" he asked.

Piper pursed her lips, realizing that that might have not been the best and most supportive thing she could have said. "And your dad?" she pressed.

"Never knew him," Leo replied simply. "Left me and my mum when I was a baby. Maybe even before I was born."

There was a pause as Piper decided what to say. "I never knew my mom," she admitted. "She appeared one day, my dad fell in love with her, and she left."

Leo frowned. "But then how—?"

"I don't know," said Piper sharply, suddenly irritated. "But Dad said that he found me on the porch of our house one winter day nestled in soft blankets inside a wooden basket painted pink. The only other thing there was a handwritten note with one word on it. My name."

"Oh," said Leo. "That's not stalker-like at all…?" He cleared his voice just to find an excuse not to say more.

"All right, enough talk," he finally said after a quiet moment of awkward silence. "You still haven't explained how you got here."

"I stole a BMW," said Piper, looking down at the table. Leo was so taken aback he thought she was kidding.

"You _what!?_" he demanded when he realized she wasn't. "Don't you realize how epic that is!?"

"I didn't steal it exactly," explained Piper. "It just… I just… I dunno, I guess I just spoke with the dealer and he just, like—"

"Gave it to you?" finished Leo.

"Yes!" cried Piper as if someone finally understood her.

"So what you're saying is," started Leo because he was having trouble processing the information, "that you talked a guy into giving you a car?"

"Exactly like that!" said Piper even more brightly than before. Leo shook his head sadly.

"If I actually believed you with that influence-over-people talk, I'd be scared if you offered me candy," he said.

"I've got gum," Piper offered, handing him a piece.

They continued talking like this, no one mentioning his or her parents again. They soon arrived at The Wilderness School, and as the kids in the last compartment they had the privilege of being one of the last people off the train.

Four teachers stood outside on the platform. Each of them held a sign—Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4. Leo and Piper headed for the Year 2 sign.

On their way, some guy intentionally bumped into Piper. "Sorry," she muttered even though it wasn't her fault, and moved on. The guy just grinned and shot her a flirtatious smile. Unfortunately for him, Piper had already turned around.

_Sorry, dude,_ Leo mouthed at him and followed her.

The Year 2 teacher looked the meanest of the four. Yes, he was short. Like, really, really short. He had a giant mop of curly brown hair like Leo's but thicker and a lot curlier, all tucked under a baseball cap. He wore these long sweatpants that reached down to these giant shoes that Leo figured were five times larger than his actual size, and he held a baseball bat in one hand, the Year 2 sign in his other, and a clipboard under his left arm. A big red megaphone sat horn-down on the pavement beside him. When Piper and Leo approached, he grunted and put the baseball bat down so he could check his clipboard.

"Names?" he asked.

Piper replied for both of them. "Leo and Piper," she told him.

The teacher rifled through the clipboard in search of their names.

"Leo Valdez and Piper McLean?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah," said Piper quickly. Leo noticed stars beside their names on the clipboard. When the teacher didn't reply, Piper added, "Is there something wrong?"

The teacher sniffed the air but stopped, deciding that whatever it was it wasn't worth his time. _"Sir!" _corrected the teacher, over his shock. "Is there something wrong, _sir!?"_

"Um, is something wrong... sir?" echoed Piper a little unsurely.

"No," he huffed. "Now get in line with the rest of the cupcakes!" He pointed behind his shoulder where a large assemblage of Year 2 students was grouped.

"Did he just call me a _cupcake?_" Piper demanded when they were out of the coach's hearing range. She seemed to have taken serious offence to this.

"He called us all cupcakes," said Leo. He turned toward her. "Cupcake," he added teasingly.

"Alright, listen up," said the teacher to the group once the very last strays had gotten off the train. "I am Coach Hedge. Got that? 'Cause I'm not repeating anything I'm about to say."

Everyone muttered a _yes, _and the kids who had been to The Wilderness School before added a _sir _at the end plus Piper and Leo. Coach Hedge seemed pleased by this.

"Good," he said. "I'm gonna be showing the newbies of this grade the school. And now we're going to go there. Don't get lost." He marched toward the train station parking lot, and the immensely large group followed him. Leo caught sight of that kid who had bumped into Piper before flash her another smile, but he got his timing off and she didn't notice.

They kept walking past the parking lot, much to Leo's wonder. They left the train station completely, and soon the only thing left for them to cross was a large valley of rolling hills.

"Where's the school?" a new kid asked.

"Ten miles going that way." Coach Hedge pointed in the direction of the hills. "Come on! Don't be slow, cupcakes!" He continued to walk.

Leo was suddenly glad that he only had a small bag.

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	3. School and History Class

**Thank you so much for everyone who reviewed! All of you are awesome!**

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**Piper**

After the three-hour hike, Piper was exhausted. Everyone was, except Coach Hedge and that guy who kept flashing cute smiles at her. (She had eventually begun to notice. And what she hated was how cute he actually was.)

Coach Hedge... she didn't know what to make of him. He was so... weird. He kept sniffing the air like he smelled something bad, but never said anything as if still determining where the smell was coming from so that he could yell at the right person. But Piper didn't smell anything, and neither could any of the other kids.

Around the midpoint of their journey they had taken a short three minute break. She took advantage of this and took out her phone, scrolling into the music app and pressing shuffle. It landed on _Yeah 3x_ by Chris Brown. Bobbing her head to the music, Piper zipped up her bag and continued the journey.

When they got to the school, Piper's first impression was that it was huge. It was composed of two main buildings—the actual school and the dormitories, which were on the left. In the dormitory building the ground floor was one large common room; anyone gender could go there. After that the building was split in two down the middle; boys and girls, and they each had four levels. One floor for each year.

Behind the school there were two outdoor pools, and then more fields and hills. Piper would later learn that two kilometres down there was lake the school used for larger water activities like canoeing.

"Well, cupcakes," said Coach Hedge, stopping in front of the dormitory building. "Looks like we're the first to arrive. We'll go into this building behind me, drop off your stuff, and if you're new you'll take an exclusive tour with me!"

There were only seven new kids in Coach Hedge's exclusive tour, including Leo and Piper. In those seven, there was that annoying guy, two of his friends, and this girl that wore so much makeup it was hilarious.

After a quick tour they got back to the dormitories. Piper chose a bed in a small, quiet corner of a large and spacious room and decided to make her home there.

The next day was a free day. The teachers would hand out timetables and list homerooms, and then the rest of their time was for exploring. Piper met up with Leo in the common lounge.

"Whadya gonna do for the rest of the day?" he asked. Piper shrugged.

"It doesn't really matter to me," she decided.

So they just walked along the school premises, talking about whatever. Leo mentioned that he was ADHD, and Piper admitted that she was Cherokee.

The day passed by so quickly, Piper noticed. When she and Leo finally returned to their dormitories near the end of the day, Piper found a teacher had come in and left a timetable for her on her bed. Piper hoped that someone had accidentally left the door unlocked and not that the teachers had the key to every room (though it probably was the latter).

Piper took out an agenda she had bought for herself and jotted down her schedule on the last page, just in case she lost her original copy. She organized all the textbooks that she would need for the next day and set them at the foot of her bed. Then she left the room to see what Leo had.

Well, Piper was disappointed to find she only had two classes with him—English and gym—but figuring how freakishly large the student body was, Piper guessed that that was super lucky.

Homeroom was History with a teacher Piper figured was nice at first glance. Mrs. Mann, she called herself. Instead of working on the first day, she gave the class a tour of the classroom, (which was really boring but killed a lot of time), and let them do whatever they wanted for the rest of the class.

"But," she had said, "almost everyone here knows each other from last year except for one of the new students, Piper McLean. Piper, tell us three interesting things about yourself."

Three? Piper knew the teacher was only doing her job and not meaning to hurt her in any way, but really? Three things? She looked around the classroom to find everyone had his or her eyes trained on her.

"Well, go on," Mrs. Mann encouraged.

Piper bit her lip. "Well, I surf," she said.

"Oh, really now?" asked Mrs. Mann to be polite.

"Yeah. And I also, um…"

"What does your Mum do?" asked Mrs. Mann.

"My… Mum?" choked Piper. Okay, Mrs. Mann was terrible at being helpful. "Well, I don't really have a Mum," said Piper slowly. Mrs. Mann's expression turned sympathetic.

"Oh, you poor thing," she said. "What happened to her?"

"What happened?" Piper squeaked. "Well… uh… I sort of don't know."

"You don't know," repeated Mrs. Mann dumbly.

"Look, she sort of ditched my dad when I was born and may we please change the subject?" Piper asked. She heard a few girls snicker behind her back. Mrs. Mann didn't notice.

"Of course, you poor dear," she said. "One more thing. Just one more."

Piper gave her a pouty face. The girls who had been snickering before started to giggle.

"Hey!" snapped Mrs. Mann at them. They both shut up. The teacher turned back to Piper. "What about your background?"

"Oh, that's easy," said Piper. "I'm Cherokee."

The two girls couldn't take it and burst out laughing. Some classmates rolled their eyes. Most started to laugh with them. Few just ignored them, 'few' meaning the teacher.

"Cherokee? How wonderful!" Mrs. Mann said brightly.

Piper shot a sideways glance at the mean girls and saw that one of them had her hands together in front of her as if she were praying and bobbing side to side, as if to mock her. The other had both hands to her forehead as if to create a mohawk. Piper considered making a rude gesture at them, but Mrs. Mann was right there. So instead she was forced to ignore them, pull out a book and pretend to read.

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**I love reviews more than... uh, fan-girls love One Direction! *****_What Makes You Beautiful_**** begins to play in the background***


	4. English and Letters

**Disclaimer: *in moany voice* Do I ****_have _****to? *sigh* Fine. I don't own Piper, Leo, the Wilderness School, and HoO all together. Ya happy?**

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**Piper**

Piper and Leo's first English class was Tuesday. Their seating arrangements were drawn up on the chalkboard at the front of the class, and Piper's desk was at the back of the room next to this guy who used his homework as spit ball ammunition and some girl who acted as if she was the princess of popular. (She didn't even know how to apply her makeup properly.) Leo sat right at the front, near the teacher's desk. Piper guessed he got that a lot, based on his grin that naturally unnerved people.

"Hello, class," the teacher, Mr. Kowalski, announced. "If you were hoping a day off on your first English class, I hope you aren't too disappointed when I tell you that we will be writing letters to our parents back at home." Groans. "What did you think of the school?" he continued, ignoring them. "Did it change at all from last year? Anything you wish. After I mark them we will be sending them, so put some effort into this as your parents will be reading them." Then Mr. Kowalski sat back down at his desk, putting on a pair of glasses and reading something.

Piper pulled out a sheet of lined paper like the rest of the class and began her rough copy. She spotted Leo get up uncomfortably and walk half a stride to Mr. Kowalski's desk. Still eyeing their conversation carefully, Piper pulled out a pencil and snapped the led off inside her desk. She rose to her feet with her blunt pencil in hand, and walked casually to the front of the classroom to the pencil sharpener. She was literally two feet away from Mr. Kowalski and Leo's heated discussion.

"What do you mean you can't do the project?" asked Mr. Kowalski.

"See, the thing is, I don't have parents to write to," said Leo. He sighed, rubbing his forehead. This was obviously hard to explain. "What I meant was that I could do the project, but you just can't send it."

"Stop kidding me, boy," said Mr. Kowalski. "I'll just send it to your guardian, then."

"I don't have a guardian either," said Leo, a bit irritated. Mr. Kowalski glared at him, but that was all of the conversation Piper was able to hear without becoming suspicious—her pencil had been sharpened already.

She quietly returned to her seat and continued with her rough copy. Her letter by the end of the class looked something like this:

_Hey, Dad!_

_So for English class we had to write a letter to a family member. Guess who I chose! *hint hint*_

_Ha ha, just kidding. Anyway, the Wilderness School is okay, though I'm still not sure if the T in 'the' is uppercase or not. I wasn't too happy about the three maybe four hour hike from the train station to get here, though. This place is out in the middle of nowhere. Sure, there's an awesome lake a few miles down, and no one would come to our aid if the entire place suddenly burst into flames..._

_Just kidding again._

_I've already made a friend. His name is Leo. And he's not my 'sweetheart', as you would call it, thank you very much._

Remembering that Mr. Kowalski would be reading this, Piper scratched out that last line.

_We're in the same grade, and even though we don't have homeroom together we share English and gym. He's ADHD, which makes him super-hyper all the time, as if he had just drunk ten mugs of coffee with a trillion ounces of sugar added._

_Anyway, it's cool here. The weather so far has been caring, and with the exception of two mean b—_

Piper erased the B, remembering her father would be reading this.

_mean girls, everyone has been nice to me._

That was when Mr. Kowalski began down the aisles, asking for students' parent's name to put on the envelope. When he reached Piper she gestured for him to lean closer before speaking.

Piper looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, and told him quickly, "tristanmclean."

He gave her a look. "What?" he asked.

Piper repeated her father's name more slowly.

Mr. Kowalski looked at her sceptically, then said, "Okay," and walked off. Piper changed her mind on being glad that no one heard, when the rude girl with tons of makeup on next to her asked, "Tristan McLean? Really?"

"Yeah," said Piper hesitantly.

The girl rolled her eyes and drew her eyes back to her work. "Such a wannabe," she muttered.

Piper rolled her eyes. If only.

_Miss you lots, Dad._

_Yours truly,_

_Pipes._

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**(I decided to update twice in one day. Why? Because this chapter is short, only 800 words. And with the previous chapter, combined they are about 1800 words, including AN, which is about the length of a normal chapter.)**

**REVIEW! NOW!**


	5. Just Playing

**Did ya miss me? I know you did! Here's the fourth chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I hereby officially declare myself not Rick Riordan. Deals with it.**

* * *

**Piper**

Okay, so maybe Piper wasn't entirely true about having nothing with Leo. She had first lunch break with him, but that technically wasn't a class.

So after English, she and Leo escaped and headed out to the cafeteria. It was jam-packed with kids, with nearly nowhere to sit.

Leo and Piper paid for their lunches and started to walk down the aisles, searching for a place to sit, when Piper spotted an empty table right in the middle of the cafeteria. She nudged Leo and walked over to it.

She and Leo had just sat down when a group of jocks—including the guy who obviously had a crush on Piper—mingled with a bunch of too-popular-for-you cheerleaders walked to the table.

"Why are you sitting here?" one of the cheerleaders asked in an O-M-G-loser-unpopular-people-eww voice only cheerleaders could pull off. She turned to her boyfriend and asked him, "Why are they sitting there?"

"Because you don't eat tables," said Leo.

"Listen, low-lives," said one of the jocks. "This is _our _table. Do you see anyone else sitting here?"

"Well, I guess not—" started Piper.

"That's why," he continued. "So, since it's just your second day, we'll let you have five seconds to get out. Starting now."

Piper stood. "We'll leave," she told him. She heard one of the guy's friends whisper to another, "Hey, she's hot."

"Dude, you have a girlfriend," his friend told him.

"Who cares?" the guy asked. He pushed himself to the front, and to Piper's horror it was the guy who kept grinning at her—Dylan was his name.

"Hey," he said. "So...you're kind of cute."

"Sorry," Piper told him. "I must be evacuating now." She picked up her tray and walked off without a backwards glance. She heard Leo do the same, but not before snapping his fingers at Dylan and saying—

"Rejected!"

Since there was nowhere else to sit, Piper and Leo headed outside. It was a little chilly, but they had brought their sweaters. They traveled up a tall hill that overlooked the school premises and rested in the shade of a tree that stood majestically on top.

"Those guys are jerks," said Piper, sitting down on the wavy grass and laying her tray of food next to her.

"Either way," started Leo, "it's much nicer outside than inside."

"It's so sweaty in the cafeteria," said Piper, picking up a grape between two fingers.

"And hot," added Leo.

"And cramped."

"And full of di—"

"Leo!"

"Sorry, Your Royal High— Hey! Why'd you throw a grape at me?"

"Because you were being rude," said Piper pointedly.

Leo picked up a strawberry from his own tray and chucked it at Piper, who didn't flinch, but closed her eyes and let the strawberry bounce off her nose.

"You're aim is improving, my one and noble student," she said in a mock sensei voice, eyes still closed. The strawberry rolled down the hill until it came to a stop near the middle.

They ate the rest of their lunch in silence.

After a while, Piper checked her watch. "The warning bell's going to ring any minute now," she said. "We should start to head back."

"Okay," said Leo. Piper stood up, but Leo didn't. Instead, he placed all his leftovers on Piper's tray, grabbed his own tray, and went back a few steps.

"What are you doing?" asked Piper. Leo grinned at her and winked.

Piper then realized what he was about to do.

"Oh, don't you dare—"

But Leo had already done it. He had jumped forward and shot down the hill on his stomach, lying down on the tray. Piper trailed him as fast as she could without tripping.

"Much… More… Fun… This… Wa-ah-ah-ah-ay!" Leo yelled, spinning off track a little but getting back.

"Leo!" she called after him. "You'll get hurt! Stop!"

But of course, you don't perform a stunt like this without a few glitches. Near the bottom of the hill, the food tray caught on something and jerked to a sudden stop, catapulting Leo off and sending him flying down the rest of the hill. He yelled something very unintelligent the first few bounces, but then became quiet and rolled silently to a stop at the bottom of the hill. Piper gasped and let her tray drop, racing down without taking caution and nearly tripping and falling twice.

"Leo!" yelled Piper, drawling to her knees next to the motionless Leo Valdez. "Leo!" Piper turned him from his side to face her. He looked dead.

Piper shrieked and covered her mouth with her hands, being unable to not fall backwards with shock. She started to hear laughter, and caught sight of Leo sitting up.

"If only I had a camera," he said between sobs of laughter. Piper wanted to slap him, but was too relived to see he was okay.

"C'mon, Master Prankster," said Piper, crawling back up the hill to retrieve her food tray. "We have a class to catch."

Leo groaned. "I got math next," he said. "ADHD makes it impossible." Then he lifted his arms up toward Piper as if he wanted her to pick him up. "Help me," he said. "I think I sprained something in my back."

"Really?" asked Piper, keeping her voice at level just in case this was another joke.

"Nah," said Leo. "But, still, help me up."

Piper sighed and grabbed his wrist, dragging him up. They raced toward the school just as the second bell rang.

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**I love reviews more than...uh, MORE THAN RICK RIORDAN LOVES CLIFFHANGERS! ****_(That's_**** the good one.)**


	6. Just Talking

**Hey! Did you miss me? Of course you did! **

**(::)**

**And that's to the only current reviewer of the last chapter. You want a cookie? Then review. I'll remind you after the chapter.**

* * *

**Piper**

The day finally came to an end, and Piper couldn't have rejoiced more. She already had three projects, four essays, two presentations, three worksheets and five pages of math homework to finish, her arms full of every textbook, notebook, and school accessory ever to exist. So when Leo walked by her in the hallway when the last bell of the day rang, even before he started to speak Piper interrupted by saying, "Sorry, can't chat now, too busy."

_"What?_" Leo asked as if he had misunderstood. "No one is ever too busy for _da Leo."_ He stroke a super-model pose.

Piper suppressed a grin but failed slightly. "Joke all you want," she said. "I have so much homework right now it isn't even funny."

"Mme Rivet for French?"

"Yeah."

"No wonder," said Leo. "Though I don't have her myself—"

"So lucky," added Piper.

"—I have kids in my homeroom who do, and they say she is a nightmare when it comes to homework," he finished.

"Thanks for the moral booster," muttered Piper, rounding to a stop at one of her classrooms. "Can you hold this?" she asked, gesturing with a prod of her head at all the things she carried. "I forgot something in this class earlier today."

So for a while they shifted around, trying to get a good angle on where to direct the armload. After a few awkward moments, Piper was finally able to walk into the classroom item free. She promptly exited with a single pencil in her hand. Leo groaned.

"Really?" he asked, peeking over the top of all of Piper's stuff.

"Yeah," Piper said, weaving the pencil through her fingers and snapping the eraser end into Leo's face. "Let's go."

So Leo had the privilege of carrying all of Piper's stuff back to the dormitories. Piper had assumed he would give it all back when he went for his own things, but apparently he was let out of eighth period early and was able to drop them off in his room before coming for Piper. She cleverly didn't mention that he could give her back her stuff until they got to the common room.

"Thank you," said Leo, spilling his arms out and dropping everything onto the floor on the first floor of the dormitory building. "I take my labour in cash. Anything over ten will do."

Piper reached into her pocket and pulled out a dime. "Here's your ten," she said, flicking it in the air.

Leo sighed and caught it, promptly chucking it over his shoulder. "Very thoughtful," he said. "And speaking of thoughtful, I forgot to ask you something earlier; why did you steal that BMW again?"

Piper felt her cheeks flush red. "And why did you run away six times?" she asked hotly, turning away from Leo. She kept fiddling with the pencil in her hand, turning it over in her fingers. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Oh, come on," said Leo. "It's not like your dad got mad at you for making out with your boyfriend in his car or something." He stopped. "Did you?"

"Oh my God, no!" yelled Piper, whirling around, feeling some relief knowing that Leo was as clueless as she wanted him to be.

"…and then his parents banned the car, so you decided to go get your own…" he continued to himself, eyes pointed upward as if thinking of the most impossible story he could imagine.

"Oh, God, shush!" yelled Piper, a little annoyed and embarrassed, but fortunately nobody seemed o be paying attention to them.

"And then— Oh, _Pip_-er, you're such a bad girl," Leo sang. Piper rolled her eyes.

"Are you always like this?" she asked. "Because I don't think I could survive to see graduation it if I have to put up with you all year."

"That's what every teacher I ever had said," Leo agreed. " And don't you have homework to finish?"

Piper groaned. "Don't remind me," she said.

"I've got my own things to finish," said Leo. "Plus, for knowing Spanish, I get to present an all second-language speech to my class tomorrow!" He faked a cheesy smile with two thumbs up. Piper resisted the urge to laugh, but failed anyway.

"So you know Spanish?" asked Piper, once all her laughter had left her.

"That is what I just said, right?" said Leo.

"That is so cool!" said Piper, clapping her hands together. "Here—say something for me."

"Like what?" Leo asked.

"I dunno—something," said Piper.

_"Piper es estúpido,"_ Leo said in Spanish. Piper clapped enthusiastically, unaware of the fact that he had just called her stupid.

"I heard my name—what did you say?" she asked excitedly.

"Piper has homework," Leo lied.

"Again!" she cried like a toddler watching his or her dad perform a simple magic trick like making a coin disappear.

Leo said something else.

"What does that mean?" asked Piper with a blank expression.

Leo told her, and she ended up smacking him on the back of the head for swearing.

"I have homework to finish up," she said, sorting through her large pile on the floor.

"And I've got to start that speech," said Leo. "Do you know if there's a study hall in the dormitories somewhere?"

Piper pointed down the room to a clean wooden door. "In there," she told him.

"Great," he replied. "Now I know which room to avoid. I'm going outside." He bent over and ripped out a page from Piper's open notebook as well as stealing one of her pens.

"But won't you be even more distracted outside than inside?" asked Piper.

Leo just plucked the pencil in her hands and tucked it behind his ear, journalist-style. "Inspiration," he called it.

**-o-O-o-**

Even though Piper knew her presence would distract Leo even further, she joined him on his homework hunt. They climbed up the same hill they had eaten on earlier that day during lunch, but instead of doing what he was supposed to do (the speech), Leo pulled out a small half-built machine from his jacket pocket along with a few screws and other tiny mechanical things and began to fiddle around with them.

"What is that?" Piper asked, thinking that after five minutes of doing homework with whatever Leo was doing was enough. He scarcely looked up.

"Some people read for fun," he said. "Others play video games. I build."

"You…build?" asked Piper, not quite being able to believe this. "Like—build what exactly?"

Leo shrugged. "Usually I just buy a mechanical toy or whatever and take it apart, rebuilding it with a few of my own special touches."

Piper noticed the machine he was working on was a silver bird. She spotted the structural frame and a few original parts inside, but a few of Leo's adjustments in there as well.

"I've been working on this one for a few days," said Leo. "Started just before I was shipped here, really. Bought it from a vendor at the train station."

"That is so cool," said Piper, subconsciously reaching her arm out to touch it, but remembering her manners just in time. "May I?"

"Go ahead," said Leo, holding it out for her. "Doesn't work yet, but I'm hoping it will by the end of the week."

"This is so cool," Piper repeated, etching her fingers across the elegance of the metal toy bird. "What does it do?"

"Nothing so far," Leo replied. "Before I got it it just hopped on the floor, pecking at the ground. Once I'm done, I'm hoping I could get it to fly."

"Really?" asked Piper. "You can do that?"

"Remotes are easy," said Leo. "Perfected them a long time ago."

"And when do you work on it?" asked Piper, still carving her fingers along the side of the bird. "This must be very time-consuming."

"At night when all the other guys are asleep I try to spend a few minutes on it," said Leo casually. "And sometimes during the boring school lessons. Like math."

"Like math," echoed Piper. She handed it back to Leo. "Good luck with it," she said.

"I have a good feeling about this one," said Leo, taking it gracefully. "My last three didn't work for some reason."

"Why?" Piper asked.

"Gee, I don't know," said Leo. "Maybe it's because I didn't do something right. Doesn't take a genius to figure that one out."

Leo went back to fixing it, Piper watching over his shoulder awkwardly.

"And, um, where did you learn to do this?" she asked just so that he wouldn't forget he wasn't there.

"My mum taught me before she died," he replied. Piper winced, realizing she had hit a sore spot.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to—"

"It's fine," said Leo, shrugging it off. "I got my problems. You've got your making-out-in-the-back-seat-of-the-car problems." He broke out into a grin.

"You are so infuriating!" yelled Piper, shoving Leo with both hands, causing him to lose balance and topple a few feet down the hill.

"That wasn't very nice," he said, dusting himself off and crawling back up.

"That comment you just made wasn't very nice," Piper shot back. Then she saw the expression on Leo's face and, once again, broke out laughing.

So she spent the rest of the Homework Hour watching Leo work on his toy bird. Soon dusk befell upon them and they headed back inside the dormitories half an hour before curfew. Piper didn't finish her homework that day, and Leo had nothing to present the next day in front of his Spanish class.

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**And, yes, I know Spanish, though I'm not fluent. My parents are Colombian even though I am proudly and epically Canadian. *Strikes pose***

**Disclaimer: Do I have to?**

**Now review. You'll get viral cookies...! *thrusts out bag of cookies***


	7. Just Flying

**You knew this was going to be a good chapter after reading the title.**

**(::) (::) ****_COOKIES!_**** (only for reviewers)**

**Disclaimer: You know what it is.**

* * *

**Leo**

Leo had to admit, having Piper as a friend wasn't such a bad thing. For one, she was smart and could easily be distracted into doing things, such as his homework.

Okay, before you say that Leo is a terrible person for doing this, he only did it once, and only mentions it as a joke. (And teachers always say "use your resources" and stuff. Doesn't this count as doing just that!?)

Soon the week had passed by and the weekend finally came. Of course, Piper finished all her remaining homework on Friday evening to get it out of her hair. Leo planned to do his last-minute after dinner on Sunday.

Leo had almost finished his bird. All he needed to do was wire it up with a remote and hope it would fly. He had woken up early to do just this on Saturday, so that when Piper finally walked downstairs with a major bed-head two hours later, Leo was just about ready to try it out.

"Ready?" he asked Piper. They had turned over one of the couches and were crouching behind it on their knees, as if hiding from enemy fire during a war. The electronic bird lay motionless next to them, and no one else stood in the common room. They had all stayed up late to celebrate Friday. Piper was just a morning person, and about the only morning person there who got up when she woke up.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Piper nervously, head slightly ducked.

"One hundred percent," assured Leo. He held the remote in his hand and turned on the little bird next to him. He looked up with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Ready? Set?"

"Just do it already," Piper told him with a whack on the back of the head.

"Just what I wanted to hear," said Leo, and propelled his bird up. For a second nothing happened, but then it unfurled it's wings and soared upward.

Piper covered her mouth with her hands. "OH MY FREAKING FLIPPING SLIPPING SLEEPING GOD!" she yelled through her fingers. Leo could tell that she thought it would only hover a few seconds before circuiting out. But this was Leo Valdez.

He grinned and ducked behind the sofa even further, though Piper stood up on her knees to get a better view. Leo turned his bird to the side once when it reached the end of the room and made it double back. He made it perform a few laps before he was comfortable to start tricks.

One loop-the-loop, two loop-the-loops, three, four, five… Three left sideways spins, four going right…

Piper still sat there in awe. Leo could tell she wanted to try it but was too nervous to ask for permission. So he decided to spare her the asking and handed her the remote.

"Really?" she asked. "I couldn't—"

"Take it or leave it," Leo told her. Piper grinned sheepishly and took the remote.

"Now, how does this work?" she asked. Leo pointed to the controls.

"Up, down, left, right," he instructed. "And boost." Piper flew the bird around for a little while longer before asking what the boost did.

"I was waiting for you to say that," Leo admitted. He took the remote back, and continued flying laps around the room. When the bird had gathered enough momentum, Leo pressed _boost._

At first, it was amazing. Leo hadn't even expected it to work. The bird shot faster and faster, and soon it was difficult just to make sure it was directed away from the walls in time. Piper stood up, and so did Leo, ducking once or twice to avoid being decapitated.

That was when Leo had an idea. "Piper," he said. "Open the door."

Piper didn't understood what he was saying but crawled over to where the door was nonetheless. She flung it open, and Leo directed the bird in this direction.

_"GOOSE!"_ he yelled. Piper turned to ask what the heck that meant, but her eyes grew large in alarm and she shot to the ground in a push-up position just as the mechanical bird shot right where her head had been.

"And it's out!" yelled Leo, rushing over to where Piper still lay without taking his hands off the remote and his eyes off of his amazing creation. "Geddup! It's getting away!"

Piper groggily got to her feet and followed Leo outside, deciding in her head that 'goose' was Leo's weird version of 'duck'. There, they chased the metal bird around a while until a few other kids started to wake up and go outside to where all the commotion was.

"Where'd he get it?" Leo overheard one guy ask Piper.

"He built it himself," Piper had replied proudly.

So more and more attention the trio brought—Leo, Piper and the bird. A few teachers even stopped to watch. They raced up the hill with the metal bird hot behind them. But it started to stutter and droop every once in a while, and soon Leo had to apologize to their small group of spectators that the bird had run out of batteries and that it needed to be charged. One by one, their audience began to leave. Leo and Piper sat down in the shade of their tree to watch them go.

"That was fun," said Piper.

Leo grinned.

"You should have seen what my other automatons did," he said. "I once built a badger that could actually dig up to ten feet underground, though I never actually tested it that far. What do _you_ do in your spare time?"

"Me?" Piper seemed to consider it. "I surf," she decided.

"Really?"

"With my dad."

"That must be awesome."

"It was." Piper sighed. "Now," she continued, changing the subject. "Tell me more about this badger…"

* * *

**Sorry if this was short. Most of my chapters are short. Maybe in the future they'll get longer.**

**...Maybe.**

**And go to my profile and reply to my paradox poll! If someone gets the answer right they get a cookie!**

**-o-O-o-**

**And now to reply to some reviews... (Yes, I read my reviews. I don't ask for them and then say, "Thanks for the critics I didn't read!")**

**_Lilerds13: _Thank you! My inspiration actually came from never reading Life at the Wilderness School fanfictions, so I said hey, why don't I give it a try?**

**_renxoxox:_ How many more chapters... *thinks* Not including this one? I have no clue. (Actually, that's a lie. I do know. _MUAHAHAHAHA!)_**

**_elliefs: _I do. So now you must review..**

**_redsneakers13: _I say that in about two years from now, 1D is going to end up changing their reputations like the one Justin Bieber has now, split up, and everyone is going to forget about them except for one who somehow manages to sneak himself into every sounds-cool-the-first-time-but-then-just-grows-obn oxious song that exists at the time. Oh, and thanks!**

**_CrazyChick:_ Thank you! The first time I wrote this Leo wasn't that funny, just spoke out every few chapters, but then I realized that I NEEDED MORE LEO! And seeing that my personal writing flaw is keeping everyone in character, this really means a lot, because I'm starting to overcome that flaw and am on my way to becoming the ultimate author-ruler of the world! MUAHAHAHAHA! (No, but seriously, thanks.)**


	8. Birds and Witnesses

**Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own, sorry, folks. :P**

**And this one's a long one!**

* * *

**Piper**

After that Saturday of flight, everyone respected Leo…somewhat. (Translation: They didn't ignore him like they used to. They gave him high-fives, slapped him on the back, and, most of the time, asked when he was going to build another robotic animal. Leo would have to shrug and say that he didn't know.)

"It needs a name," Piper decided later that day as they walked at the back of the school toward the fields. Technically they weren't supposed to go there without adult supervision, but no one really cared—not even the supervisors themselves. As long as they came back, though.

Piper climbed up the two-meter tall fence and swung her legs over the top. She hopped down on the other side and looked at Leo through the rails. "Well, c'mon," she said. Leo sighed, tossed Piper his bird's remote from above, (yes, he had brought it), and climbed up the fence halfway.

"I'm not exactly the one to perform gymnastics…" started Leo, looking down with caution. Piper rolled her eyes.

"C'mon," she repeated. "It's not _that _high."

Leo closed his eyes and continued to climb, feeling his way up. He finally rested at the top with one leg dangling on the edge of school property the other not.

"It's not that high up," repeated Piper. Leo sighed and swung his other leg over, but he lost his balance and tipped sideways.

Out of pure instinct, Piper darted out of the way, stumbling and crashing down sideways while doing so, her choppy brown hair flying all over her face. It was when she realized that she hadn't heard any impact or groan from Leo that she realized that he had tricked her again.

"That's for making me carry your bags on Tuesday," he said, still sitting on the top of the fence. Piper propped herself onto her shoulders.

"You're still upset over that?" she asked.

"I get even when I can," he said, hopping down from two meters above in a single move. He bent his knees on impact, causing nearly no sound. He straightened himself back up and dusted his jacket for non-existent dust. He held out his hand for Piper to grab. She cocked her head with a surrendering sigh and took it, allowing Leo to haul her up to her feet.

"As I was saying," she continued as they kept walking, "I think we should give your pet a name." She controlled the bird to fly up over the fence from the other side by using the remote. She made it tail behind them a few feet above their heads, showing off a trick every once in a while.

"Steve," Leo decided.

"That name is overused," commented Piper.

"Fred."

"That one too."

"Bob."

"Now you're just messing with me."

"Then what do you suppose we should call it, Ms Fussy-Fussy-Name-Namer?"

"How about… Archimedes?" asked Piper. "Wasn't he, like, a Greek machine-builder guy?"

"Yeah," said Leo. "I think I've heard of him. Maybe the bird's name could be Medes. Archie, or maybe Dez?"

"Chime," decided Piper, finding the smaller word in the larger one. "Let's name it Chime."

"But Chime sounds like a girl name," said Leo.

"And why should this be a problem, seeing _she_ is a girl," asked Piper. She landed the bird in her left palm and used the fingers on her opposite hand to nod its little bird head.

"Fine," sighed Leo. "Chime it is."

They ambled along the fields for another while, racing each other every once in a while, and playing with Chime when they got bored. By the end of the hour, all three of them bore scratches and bruises where they had tripped over their feet or fallen onto their faces or crashed into a tree. (Well, of course, Chime was the only one to crash into a tree. It was an accident, though.)

Soon, after another one of their let's-see-who-is-faster-the-human-or-the-bird races, they fell onto their backs, exhausted. Piper directed Chime to fly around their heads.

"I wish she were real," she muttered as they trailed their eyes on the bird.

"Same," said Leo. "Unfortunately, humans haven't advanced enough to create robots that actually move and speak on their own—unless you count an android."

"Too bad," murmured Piper quietly. After a moment, she said, "Hey, what time is it?"

"The time that if we don't hurry up, they'll lock us out for the night," Leo replied. "It took us around an hour to get here, right?"

"Yeah," said Piper. It was then that she noticed that dusk was befalling them and that the sky had already turned orange. She got to her feet and they silently made their way back, every once in a while yanking out handfuls of the wavy grass and throwing it at each other.

They finally reached the school near seven with exactly half an hour to kill. They sat near the fence, not really wanting to leave the perfect weather they currently stood in.

So they played around with Chime another few minutes. It was Leo's turn, and he practiced some new tricks near the school door on the other side of the fence.

"Watch this," Leo told Piper, flying Chime upwards until they could no longer see the bird behind the school. Then, to Piper's utter horror, he let go of the controls, and she could practically hear the bird come crashing to the ground.

But at the last second, he spread Chime's wings out, and she stopped falling and started flying with her belly literally one inch off the ground. She flew up over the fence and out toward the fields.

"Impressive," admitted Piper. She took the remote from Leo's hands. "My turn," she said. She flew Chime back, and directed her upwards just like Leo had.

"This is extremely accurate," Leo was telling her. "So don't hesitate to stop her at collision. She'll fly up the exact second you tell her to. I would know."

"Okay," Piper said, her fingers suddenly turning fidgety. Since when was she nervous to fly Chime? So she did just as Leo instructed. Fly up, and then just let go.

It was fun the first time. Chime flew up right before she crashed into the ground, momentum pulling her up for the second round without Piper so much as having to pull the control up for more than two seconds. Soon Piper was comfortable with tricks.

Three spins down, four on the way up, but soon Leo was telling her to stop, and that she'd eventually crash Chime into something.

"Nah, I got this," said Piper, brushing him off. Chime performed another three barrel rolls in a row, flying back toward the school.

"It's gonna run out of battery," warned Leo.

_"She's_ still going strong," Piper told him.

"It's time to go in."

"Three more seconds."

Piper landed Chime on the extension that hung over the door to go into the school. She tossed the remote to Leo, and climbed up the fence. Leo underhand threw her the remote and climbed over himself.

"Now give the remote back," he said, holding out her hand for her to give it to him. Piper shook her head.

"Chime is mine until we get into the dormitories," she told him. Then, just to prove her point, she flew Chime into her hand.

"Just make sure you don't end up marrying it."

"She's yours all for tomorrow. Promise."

"Fine," said Leo as Chime was forced into five continuous loop-the-loops.

That was when the doors opened again and four guys walked out. The first three were obviously the bad guys by the cigarettes and tattoos and biceps that could only be earned by going to the gym twelve times a week for five continuous hours, meaning that the fourth guy was their victim.

Piper instantly knew these guys were trouble. She didn't even need to shoot Leo a warning glance for them to sneak away silently. They tiptoed to the closest cover they could find—a tipped over picnic table. They crouched down behind it and waited, Piper twisting the remote controls so that Chime landed softly and safely and inconspicuously on an identical table a little farther off.

At that point Piper had wanted to be close to the bullies so that she could see and hear what happened. But afterwards she just wished she had never been there to witness it in the first place.

The second raven guy threw their victim against the fence, rattling it tremendously. The obvious freshman fell on his arm, wincing slightly, his skin getting caught between the bars. He tried pulling away slowly, but the blond bully held him against the fence. Piper's breath turned sharp. She sneaked a frightened and wide-eyed look at Leo crouching down next to her.

"You rat us out?" he demanded into the freshman's face.

"No!" he yelled, his voice coming out hoarse as if trying not to cry, which Piper would have done if she had been in his current situation in less than three seconds. "No, I didn't!" he yelled again.

The blond guy didn't do anything for a second, but then pulled the freshman away from the fence and onto the ground with such force that when he fell on his hands they got ragged and earned deep cuts that seemed serious. "You're lying!" he spat at the freshman.

"No!" he yelled again, trying to cower but look not so pathetic at the same time.

"Then why did we get detention for three weeks, then, huh?" asked the second guy. "Can you explain that?"

_Maybe it's because a teacher saw you, stupid, _Piper thought.

"I didn't tell! I didn't, I swear!" the freshman yelped.

"You were the only witness," the blond guy snarled. To his buddies, he added casually, "We really have to stop leaving so many witnesses."

"You knew what would happen if you hadn't told a soul," said the second raven-haired guy.

"You also knew what would happen if you did," continued the third bully, speaking for the first time.

Piper didn't look. She was glad she had. Because when she finally heard the yelps and the kicks and the punches and the rattling fence and the bullies finally stop, there wasn't much to look at but chaos. She bit her lip to prevent from her crying out in dismay. What kind of cruel person would do all that just to get even with someone? Piper knew she'd just swear and curse at them behind their back. But this? This was horrible.

Piper remembered in elementary and middle school where they had bullying presentations every two months, and she and her friends found it so annoying. In grade one and two they'd play hand games. In grade three to five they'd play around with whatever they had in their pockets. In middle school they'd just take the time as a free period and chat. They never paid attention. It was only now that Piper realized how serious and horrible bullying was.

"Let's hope he learned his lesson," said the third guy, spitting at their victim but missing and hitting the ground next to him instead.

Piper remembered what her dad and every teacher she had ever had tell her—when bullied severely, like what she had just witnessed, always tell. But this whole ordeal happened because some guy told someone what he had seen the bullies do. Piper didn't want to be next.

The second guy went in for another kick, but the blond guy held him back. "No point," he said. "The guy's knocked out until next week. It's almost curfew—let's get back inside."

They turned to leave, when one of them stopped. "Hey, what's that?" he called.

Piper felt her blood run cold. So they had found them, and soon she would join that poor freshman on the hard and cold floor. But nothing happened. Piper cautiously peered out from behind the bench and she sighed in relief when she took notice of the fact that they hadn't found her, but then grew panicky again when she took sight of what they had.

Chime.

In this entire scene, Piper had forgotten all about the stupid little bird. But there she was, still standing upright on one of the farther and unturned tables.

"I've seen that bird before," said the third bully, thinking. "I've seen it."

"A witness," muttered the blond guy, and he swore loudly. "We have to stop leaving those!"

"What do we do?" asked one of them. The blond guy looked around, and Piper's head shot back behind the table.

"They already heard us," he said. "They might even be listening right now. But if they are, they'll be sorry. Now c'mon. Curfew ends soon, and we don't want to be here when the teacher comes out to check that no one's here. So with a couple backward glances, the trio turned back to the school and walked inside.

Piper didn't move for a minute. "God, this stinks," she said, then to prove her point she swore. Then swore again. Then kept repeating the same cuss word over and over again just beause she could.

"You know, you have nothing to be afraid of," Leo told her. "They know it's _my _bird. They'll be coming after _me, _not you."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," said Piper, swearing afterwards.

They walked back to the dormitories, saying their shaken goodnights at the third story, entering their own rooms. Quietly as to not wake up the other girls, Piper crawled into her bed and pulled the curtains around her. Without bothering to change or brush her teeth in the washroom next to her, Piper curled up in a tight ball and closed her eyes, praying that she could get some sleep.

* * *

**Hope that wasn't too nerve-raking.**

**And, okay, I don't know what high school bully trios look like. (Still in grade seven—hello?) I was about to use the stereotype of beached-blond hair and muscly arms and stuff, but decided to leave how they looked like to the imagination of the readers. (I had seriously written up three large paragraphs to describe them, so this wasn't an easy feat.)**

**And, no, the leader is not Dylan. They're just normal mortal bullies. ****Just to clear that up.**

**Okay, I'm getting tired of this, but review. Everyone with an account and at least one story knows that I can tell how many people read my story. Not who they are, of course, but I have numbers. And I want ****_you _****to review. So review. Now. Even if it's just ;P.**

**And go to my poll!**


	9. Chases and Charmspeak

**I'****m**_** ba-aack!**_

**I've been noticing that lots of people in the reviews are asking me when Leo and Piper get to CHB. Well, to all those people, they will. Soon. Actually, sooner than you think.**

_**Wait. Why did I tell you that...? **_

**Disclaimer: I don't own HoO. Deals with it.**

**PS: Has anyone seen the House of Hades cover yet? It's wicked crazy!**

* * *

**Leo**

Leo stayed in bed until one in the afternoon, hiding behind his bed curtains. Finally, the hunger for food became too great and he slipped out of bed and walked down to the cafeteria. Piper wasn't there. Leo didn't blame her. He wouldn't have stayed anyway; lunchtime on weekends was the worst since all the kids in the school were trying to get food, not just a quarter or a third or whatever.

Leo grabbed himself an apple and ate it near the trashcans. When he finally reached the core, he quickly threw it out and began to make his way back to the dormitories. Halfway there, the bullies stood talking amongst themselves quietly, glaring at everyone who got too close to them. Leo began to freeze in tracks to turn around, but realized that that would make him look extremely suspicious. So like everyone else at the school, he made his way around to avoid them, but keeping the same pace.

_Please don't recognize me, please don't recognize me, please don't recognize me, please don't—_

"Hey, you!"

Leo swore and turned around to face whoever spoke to him.

"Yes?" he asked politely.

"You don't know by any chance who Leo Valdez is, do you?" the first bully asked. Leo had to refrain from laughing out loud.

_These guys are serious idiots._

"Nope," he said. "Not at all. Never heard of him. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Leo Valdez just happened to not go to this school."

"Are you sure you don't know him?" the first one pestered.

"Well, uh, I think he may be in his dormitories, but I saw him leave earlier," Leo lied, twirling his thumbs and index fingers around each other. He felt one of his ADHD adrenaline rushes coming on, which was good in case he needed to run. His brain was already conducting a loud and attention-worthy distraction if need be. "Don't you have some other kids to beat up? I'm sure they're busy waiting for you guys."

"Well, there is that guy Sam…" the second guy started, thinking.

"Well, then, Sam better start to run because you are coming to get him." Leo pushed a finger into his chest. "Now, I have shoe laces to tie, so you're welcome, stay fresh, study hard, and don't get caught by teachers."

Leo started to walk away, but the first one held him back. "Wait…" he said. He looked inspected Leo closely as if trying to match faces, and he felt it coming.

"It's him," he muttered.

"No freaking duh," Leo muttered.

The bully was surprised. "You're not scared?" he asked. He was probably unaccustomed to having anyone referring to him except to yell _"Please, no, God, no!"_

"Nah," said Leo. "I've got something to protect myself with."

The bullies looked among themselves, wondering what it could be stupidly.

Leo gave them his secret. "I'm a firebender," he told them, and ran.

He managed to get two steps before one of the bullies grabbed him to pulled him back. He instinctively went to his built-in last-resort plan, and realized what was happening before the bully did.

The bully wailed, letting go. "That freak burned me!"

Leo had no time to apologize or to smack himself. He leapt past the guy and ran.

Gotta love those ADHD adrenaline rushes.

Leo ran all the way past the dormitories. He knew he couldn't outrun these guys forever, so instead he faked going inside and ran around the side and toward the back of the school.

He was running so fast that he crashed into another student and propelled whoever it was five feet to the ground.

"Sorry!" he called back.

"Watch it, Leo," said Piper, sitting up and rubbing her head.

"Can't talk!" yelled Leo, quickly rushing Piper to her feet. "Think I'm gonna have to go to my Pokemon distraction if I don't lose 'em!"

"Poke…what?" Piper asked, oblivious.

"Quick summary—I tried it at my second foster home. It works like a charm. But, then again, I was in grade five at the time. I don't wanna have to rely on it now."

"Wait…the bullies?" she asked, her eyes widening. She began to run alongside Leo. He started to tell her to stop, but before he could she told him, "Don't even think about saying it." And so Leo decided he wouldn't. They skidded into the school and raced down the hallways. They ran up the stairs and all the way into a random empty classroom to stop and catch their breath. "That was close," Piper panted.

"Did we lose them?" Leo asked.

"I don't know!" Piper yelled. "I wasn't keeping track!"

Leo swore. The bully and his second partner in crime were standing in the doorway, blocking their only exit, unless you counted the second-story window. "Now, I don't know what you did to our friend back there, but you're going to pay for whatever it was!" he said.

"Was it burn?" asked the other.

"I think he said that he was burned."

"Hmm."

"Hmm."

"I don't like fire."

"Me neither. It's too orange."

Leo started to say something in return, but Piper held him back. "I've got this one," she told him. Then, to the two bullies, she yelled, "You aren't going to hurt us!"

"We aren't?" they asked in perfect unison.

"You just said it yourself—your friend needs help," explained Piper.

"Oh, yeah," the first one said.

"He does," repeated the second one.

"And the time you spend here with us is time wasted that you could be using to help your friend," Piper continued.

"Hmm…" thought the first one. "I guess…"

"She has a point…"

"Hmm…"

"Hmm…"

"Hmm…"

"Well, hurry up!" asked Piper. "Burns are very prone to...uh, infection! I think!"

"Okay."

"Alright."

The two bullies trotted off without much of a backwards glance. Leo looked at Piper, impressed.

"How did you do that?" he asked. "That was even better than the Pokemon idea!"

Piper shrugged. "Like I said. Influence over car dealers."

Leo was about to tell her how much that rocked when slow and sarcastic clapping interrupted him before he could even start. In the hallway, watching everything unfold before his eyes, stood Dylan and two of his friends.

"Well, _now_ I'm impressed, McLean," he said.

"What do you jerks want?" demanded Piper. Leo was sort of hoping she would order them to jump out of the second-story window, but knew her better than that.

"Nothing," admitted Dylan leisurely. "Just strolling by, happened to come across you two. Here. In this classroom."

Leo saw red flush Piper's cheeks. "Leave us alone," she demanded in the same tone she used on the bullies.

Dylan's two friends fidgeted uncomfortably as if they were unsure of what they should do, but Dylan just laughed, slowly and deliberately. Piper's words had no effect on him. "Why should I?" he taunted.

"Because I'm telling you to!" Piper nearly shouted. "Now go!"

"Alright, alright," said Dylan as if he had all the time in the world, raising his hands above his head in mock defeat. His two friends snickered. He began to leave, but Dylan turned back to Piper and winked. Then they were gone.

"Ugh," Piper said, hugging herself. "That guy is a creep."

"Almost like the kind of guy that would turn into a demon and terrorize innocent mortals for entertainment," Leo commented.

They started laughing at this ridiculous thought. But the funny thing was that they _could _imagine Dylan being a monster. A lot more than they should have been able to.

* * *

**Alright, so I've been reading the reviews and this one caught my eye, written by **_**elliefs. **_**I'm not about to write out the whole thing, but basically it was telling me that in the summary it said what would happen if** **Hera never switched Percy and Jason, and if I was just going to write about Piper and Leo, or them and everyone else. **

***puts on expression of thought* ****Hmm... Good question...**

**This is a Leo and Piper story. I repeat; LEO AND PIPER. Near the end there will be a few different POVs, but those will be brief and short and prompt and other synonyms for not-lasting-long.**

**This is a _what if_ story. Meaning, _what if _Hera hadn't switched the two demigods? Meaning, Piper and Leo go to the Wilderness School, go to Camp Half-Blood, and... WHAT ABOUT THE PROPHECY? No story would be complete without a prophecy—right? So the story unravels even further, and then there's this huge conspiracy that I can't talk about, and there's lots of blood and gore and everyone gets abducted by aliens.**

**Hope that clears things up a bit! And if not...then you just must read on to find out what happens.**

**Review!**


	10. Push-Ups and Lightning Bolts

**Thanks for all the reviews, guys! This chapter is the longest chapter written so far, so you guys better enjoy it! *scary eye***

**I don't own ****anything. *****falls to knees sobbing***

_**TooLazyToLogin:**_** This is a Leo and Piper friendship fic. They don't get together. At least, I think they don't... We'll just have to see where the story takes us. *grins***

* * *

**Leo**

Physical Education was always the worst class for Leo. Fortunately for him and his sanity, he had it with Piper.

Their teacher for P.E. was Coach Hedge, the guy who called everyone cupcakes and forced people to call him sir. He carried a bullhorn everywhere, which Leo found extremely unnecessary due to his loud (and, okay, _kinda _scary) voice, and his favourite pass-time was to torture kids by getting them to perform push-ups everywhere. No one really liked him.

He and Piper had gym on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On the first Wednesday at The Wilderness School there had been a 'Welcome Back From Summer' speech given by the principal during their gym time; on Thursday there had been an emergency all-health-teachers-must-attend meeting during this class; and on Friday Coach Hedge was just yelling at the class the entire period for being three minutes late.

So Wednesday of the second week was the first day they actually did something in P.E., and even that wasn't much. Coach Hedge was taking them on a tour of the aerial course the school shared with this country club a few miles south from the school. So, Wednesday last period, Piper and Leo lined up with nineteen other kids, including that jerk Dylan, and began their three-mile hike.

"This is so pointless," Piper muttered to Leo.

"I know," said Leo, catching sight of Coach Hedge barking something at some poor kid at the front. He re-shouldered his small knapsack, which was beginning to droop a little from his back. "And our teacher is kinda crazy too."

"Kinda!?" Piper demanded. "On Friday, while he was yelling at us, I asked to go to the washroom. Twenty push-ups, he said. Twenty! To go to the freaking washroom!"

"That's just cruel," muttered Leo, shaking his head sadly. "Forcing discipline into our bladders. That should be unlawful."

"He's definitely bonkers," Piper agreed.

Even though they had taken extra caution to whisper, apparently Coach Hedge had very good ears. He whirled around and pointed straight at Piper and Leo, causing them to freeze in their tracks. "You two!" he barked. "Twenty push-ups! Now! On the ground!"

"What?" asked Leo, caught by surprise.

"What, _sir!_" Hedge yelled. "Fifty push-ups!"

"Why do we need—?" asked Piper, but was cut short.

"One hundred!" yelled Hedge. "One hundred push-ups for the cupcakes!"

Leo and Piper just stood there, stunned, not sure of what they should do.

_"EIGHTY HUNDRED FOUR BAJILLION SIXTY MILLION THREE!"_ Coach Hedge finally decided. "Two thousand...uh, a million...was it...? Never mind! Two hundred push-ups! Each! Now, on the floor!"

Leo and Piper shared a groaning and protesting look, but obeyed their gym teacher and got down on their hands. Leo shrugged off his knapsack and let it fall to the dirt beside him.

"One… Two… Three— Piper! Not a proper push-up! Start over! One… Two… Three… Four… Now continue! And catch up to the class afterwards!" yelled Coach. He whirled around and walked back to the front of the crowd to lead the rest of the class to the aerial course. A few of their classmates snickered at them, a few shot them pitiful looks, but no one stood up for them.

"Coach, sir?" someone asked. It was Dylan.

"What?" Coach Hedge spat, annoyed that he had to be interrupted again.

"Sir, I believe I forgot something at school," he replied. Leo grunted at his tenth push-up. One hundred ninety to go. "May I go retrieve it?"

Hedge pondered this, looking over where they had just come to see how far back the school lay. It was still within jogging distance. "How important is it?" he asked Dylan.

"Very important, sir." Dylan nodded his head gravely.

"...Alright," decided the coach. "Be quick. Now, cupcakes, let us continue our journey!" Dylan headed back as Coach Hedge leaded the group farther off. Leo concentrated on his push-ups. _Twenty… Twenty-one… Twenty-two…_

_Thirty-nine…_

_Fifty-four…_

_Sixty-two…_

_Seventy—_

Next to him, Piper gasped and dropped to the floor, exhausted, her face tanned a bright red. Leo guessed he didn't look much better. He stopped and propped himself on his elbows, eventually falling onto his back with a cloud of dust. The wind picked up, and the cold rushing air on Leo's face felt reliving.

"Should we bail?" asked Piper, wiping her brow with the back of her hand, peering back at the direction their class had headed off in.

"No way," said Leo. "That teacher scares me. If he found out we cheated, I have a feeling we'll be doing something a _lot _worse than two hundred."

Piper considered this. "What did he say? Eighty hundred four bajillion?" Her hand slipped and skidded off the dirt a few inches and she fell onto her back like Leo. "But… one break… Just one break… Say, what did you bring in that sack anyway?"

"Just some bug spray, a metal water bottle, and Chime," he replied.

"With the remote."

"Yeah. She's sort of useless without it."

"I know."

They must have lain there, taking in the bright sun, doing nothing but trying to regain control over their own heartbeats for a while, as Dylan finally returned with nothing extra than a cap on his head. He grinned as he passed by them, taking in the fact that they still weren't finished with pleasure.

_"Very _important," Piper called out to him.

"You still aren't finished?" he just asked, as if it weren't obvious enough already.

"You try two hundred push-ups in less than five minutes," Leo said to him. Dylan ignored him.

"You can bail," said Dylan. "I won't tell."

"Sure you won't," said Piper, a hint of sarcasm dripping in her voice. She propped herself on her elbows, slipping a little because of the wind that was picking up at a much larger pace. "Listen, Mr. I Think I'm A God_—_you're just a big jerk who's never had a life, so just go away."

"What?" asked Dylan, sounding mildly surprised. The sun disappeared behind the dark clouds that had appeared from nowhere. Only a minute earlier it had been the sunniest day of autumn. Now it was dark and looked as if it were about to rain, with horrible wind conditions added into the mix. "I think you misunderstand, Piper dear. I'm not a god."

"Well, that's nice to know," Leo told him, the wind carrying his voice a long way. "Piper here is the goddess of Get The Heck Out Of Here, and I'm the god of pwnage and other epic owning."

"And don't call me 'dear'!" Piper snapped, getting to her knees.

Dylan continued as if they hadn't spoken at all. "All the gods are hiding," he growled. His voice was scarier somehow. Less human. "They're all cowards, and to call yourself one would be like condemning yourself to your own death.

"So you see, I'm no god. I'm a monster."

The wind then decided to go to its full power. A current hit Piper and she went skidding on her side seven meters along the dirt path, screaming. Her voice was snuffed out by the rushing winds.

Leo tried to stand but the air stream pushed him back down. He started to swear, but right at _"holy pancakes__—!"_ the wind tossed him back a few feet into the air and he landed painfully on his back. His breath was smacked right out of him, and he spent several seconds trying to get air back into his lungs.

Dylan towered over him, but it wasn't the annoying bully-Dylan he knew. From waist up it was a deadly sort-of-human-looking monster made of wind, electricity crackling at the webs of its fingers. The lower half was a whirling twister, hovering several feet above the ground to loom over Leo.

"A fire user," said Dylan calmly as if this thought were contemplative. "Your blood will work wonderfully to awaken the goddess." Leo wanted to ask what the freaking heck was he talking about, but he was still in too much of a shock.

Somewhere beyond, Piper managed to get to her feet only to be pushed back down again. Two more wind monsters from the dark thunderclouds above appeared and cackled in glee, diving down to seize her by the arms. She tried to run away, thrashing and screaming and kicking when one got too close, and these creatures seemed to find this more as entertainment than a threat. Eventually, the left one just hit her with a bolt of electricity and she screamed and fell limp, falling onto her face, her long brown hair whipping in the wind.

"Piper!" Leo yelled, struggling to his feet to pommel the bloody hell out of those... whatever they were, only resulting in being pushed down to his knees.

"Don't worry," Dylan sneered. "She won't be killed... yet."

Leo felt a surge of anger overflow inside of him. He raised a hand that burned white hot and tried to hit Dylan with it, but he only floated away and laughed at his feeble attempt. Leo was too mad to feel guilty about using his power, and in his defense these guys were taking away his best friend_—_possibly only friend_—_to who-knows-where and had plans to do the same thing with him to sacrifice to some sleeping goddess. (That's his life for ya.)

"Give it up, demigod," Dylan yelled back. The wind swirling around Leo began to feel tight and limited. He gasped for breath, the fire in his hand burning out. Lack of oxygen, lack of fire, lack of breathing, lack of consciousness, he thought.

Way to keep your smiles up.

Darkness ate the corners of Leo's vision. Everything he could still see was blurry and hazy, as if he were trying to look through a rippling, thick and murky pond. He fell forward, one hand stretched out to keep him from falling onto his face, the other clutching at his failing lungs. Leo looked up at Dylan, but decided that his last blurry view of the world would not be of some monster that was going to go all Mayan on him to sacrifice Leo and Piper to a goddess who shouldn't exist in the first place (Dylan_ and _the goddess), and looked down at the ground instead.

But then his breath and sight returned. He looked up to find Dylan being hit repeatedly on his airy head with a baseball bat, which when he looked closely was actually a long branch with twigs and leaves still attached. Leo found this extremely comical.

And was never more glad to see his gym teacher in his life.

The rest of the class stood nearby, gaping in awe and terror. Piper lay slumped on the grass, having been dropped after Dylan's two friends went to help their leader with the gym teacher problem. Coach Hedge's cap had been blown off, revealing very curly hair and—were those _horns!? __  
_

Leo's brain received this information, but never processed and examined it carefully enough. Every instinct in him yelled, _"Run! Get away from this place! Scramble on your knees if you must!"_ But Piper was still unconscious on the floor and Chime was still trapped inside his knapsack fifty feet away._  
_

"Take that, cupcake!" The wind carried Hedge's voice all the way to where Leo was. Dylan kept trying to zap the coach with his electricity, but he dodged them nimbly to secure another blow. The other two wind creatures, now seeing Piper as defenseless, went for Leo.

He realized that there was only one way to stop these guys from killing him. A small plan that was 99% likely to fail formed in his head. But that was still better than 100% certain death, so Leo raced over to his knapsack and pulled out Chime.

"Please don't fail me now, girl," he muttered as he flicked the switch that turned her on. Chime's eyes lit up and her wings stretched. Leo pulled out her remote, and barely rolled out of the reach of two electrical blows. Several girls and even a few guys in his class screamed.

Leo got to his feet and bolted, slipping on his knapsack on while doing so. Once or twice he felt lightning bolts kick his heels as he ran, each one encouraging him to run faster.

He finally stopped behind a tree. He paused only half a second to catch his breath, and pulled out Chime's remote and without further delay, flew her up into the air, keeping her there. Seeing that she was made of metal, all lightning attacks were directed towards her. Leo guessed she would survive three or four of them before failing and falling and rendering useless. Enough time, he thought.

Leo reached for his bag, and pulled out the can of bug spray. He skimmed through the contents…

_C'mon… c'mon…_

Propane. Perfect.

Leo could go into a full-out boring conversation on propane; how it was used for cooking and heaters, and sometimes even aerosol hairspray. For now, though, it would serve as his very own weapon against these terrifying wind monsters.

Once upon a time, Leo had been in the custody of social services for the third time. They had locked him in a room with only a bed, a washroom, and a TV. Extremely bored, the younger Leo flipped through the channels until he came across _Avatar: The Last Airbender_. Zuko was in the middle of a battle—was it an Agni Kai?—and had shot fire from his hands, and it literally flew fifty meters to his opponent. Leo could not do this, but it was the inspiration for this next plan he was about to try out.

He uncapped the lid on his bug repellent with a flick of his thumb. Leo crawled slowly to his knees as to not attract any attention, and tried lighting his index finger. A small flame appeared for a second, but was quickly snuffed out by the wind.

A second was all Leo needed, though. At least, he hoped so. It would mean he only had one chance to get it right. But what's an epic battle to the death with three flying creatures and a gym teacher with horns and a knocked out princess and mechanical bird and a cursed kid with fire powers without a few high stakes, chances, and probable death?

_I'm dead._

He crawled on his hands and knees to where Hedge was whacking all the wind monsters with his branch and calling them cupcakes. Dylan snarled, "You knocked out the boy?" The wind monster nodded, and Dylan smiled toothily.

_More like you tried to knock me out but ended up hitting Chime instead, _Leo thought.

"Then our work here is done," Dylan finished. He turned to his other partner. "Zap the satyr with a thousand volts. Then grab the girl and boy and let's go."

Leo realized what this meant. He struggled to his feet and held up his index finger before him. He got the bug repellent ready and—

_Whoosh._

The wind monsters didn't even know what hit them. A giant wave of flames enveloped them. They all shrieked loudly and covered their faces with their arms for some reason. The wind began to die down.

Dylan managed to swat away the red flames. "Child of fire," he snarled. "I promise you; you will not live to see another day."

"But will you?" Leo asked him, and he let another wave of flames toward the monsters. Dylan's two friends hissed and screeched and were forced to scamper out of the range of fire, flying up into the storm clouds and disappearing.

"Traitors!" Dylan yelled after them. "No problem," he said to himself. "I'll just handle this myself."

Leo thought Dylan was scary before. What he turned into before his very eyes was more than terrifying.

Dylan was now a five-meter tall tornado. His hair swirled around from being blown around so much. His fingertips were so overloaded with electricity that sparks shot off from everywhere. He sprouted dark wings from his back, as if he were an evil angel just returned from Hell. The air that had just begun to settle picked up again, but this time electricity shot down from the sky, the clouds were virtually black, and it began to rain. Dylan's eyes were a blood red, and when he spoke his voice boomed with thunder.

"Child of fire," he spoke in a deep growl. "Your end is near."

Leo dropped his can of bug repellent.

"Give it up," boomed Dylan. "You stand no chance against me!" The tree Leo had once hid behind was torn right off from the roots and was thrown toward the mass of classmates. They all screamed and scattered.

But, wait. Where was Piper?

Dylan seemed to notice as well. "Where is she!?" he roared.

"Looking for me?" she yelled defiantly, her hair whipping around so much it was nearly impossible to see her face. She held Leo's water bottle in her right hand. Dylan grinned.

"Daughter of beauty," he said.

Piper wrinkled her nose. "Flattery won't save you," she yelled.

"No, no," said Dylan, grinning even more at her obliviousness. "Not flattery. Just reference."

As Piper tried to figure this out, a lightning bolt worth a hundred thousand volts shot down from the sky toward her. She seemed to anticipate this, though, and threw the water bottle at Dylan.

Dylan laughed. "A water bottle?" he asked. "Demigods can be so—"

Those were the last words he ever spoke. The water bottle passed right through him, but what he didn't notice was the bolt of his own electricity coursing after it. Lightning goes for tall and metallic, and Leo's water bottle just happened to be a) flying through the sky, and b) made of metal.

Dylan didn't stand a chance.

The storm suddenly ended. The wind died, and the wind spirits disappeared. Coach Hedge stood on the grass stamping on some gold powder that used to be Dylan, yelling, "Take that, you cupcake!"

Piper stood there, breathing heavily. She looked sideways at Leo, and began to cry.

"Ohmigod what was that?" she asked between sobs. "It could have killed us! If you hadn't thought of the bug repellent and I hadn't thought of the water bottle, we could be dead right now! Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod!" She began to hyperventilate.

Coach Hedge finally looked up and grunted. "Good thinking, demigods," he said. "We better get going."

"Whoa whoa whoa," said Leo, putting his hands in a timeout T. "I'm not going anywhere until a few key questions have been answered. One; what were those things? What are you, and where did you say you were taking us?"

"Yeah!" added Piper, fanning her face.

Coach Hedge rolled his eyes. "I was in this exact same position fifteen other times with fifteen different demigods," he said to himself. Then, to Leo and Piper, he added, "Listen, cupcakes, you aren't normal."

"I've got ADHD; of course I'm not!" Leo yelled.

"Yeah!" added Piper, still fanning her face.

Hedge shook his head.

"Explaining this might take a while," he said. "Both of you are too close to hysterics."

"Hysterics!? Hysterics!?" Leo demanded. "We just fought three wind monsters for you, lightning bolts were just hurled at both of us, and me and my best and only friend could have died. I am SO not in hysterics!"

"Yeah!" added Piper, still fanning her face. Leo was beginning to wonder if she even knew what the coach was saying.

"Sounds like hysterics to me," said Coach Hedge calmly. "Look, kid. I'm going to take you to a magical place in the Big Apple for people like you and your girlfriend here."

"SHE'S NOT MY—!"

"In that magical place you will train to survive those terrible monsters you just faced. Why?" He took in a deep breath for the start of a long sentence. "Because you are the son of a Greek god and yes they still exist and I am a satyr so that means I am half goat so I save demigods like you from the bad guys who like to eat you for lunch. Got it?"

Leo sighed. "You're seriously messed up," he told the coach.

Coach Hedge patted him on the back. "Your entire life and everything you've ever known is about to become messed up. C'mon. Let's get you home."

* * *

**And, yeah, I still watch Avatar****... Don't judge me! I'm still twelve! I deserve some bending awesomeness!**

**I went through so much research and pain for this chapter, so you better leave a review! (C'mon, let's hit thirty!)**


	11. Camp and Life There

**Hello awesome people of the world! How do you do? I am doing great myself, thank you very much.**

**Disclaimer: PJO and HoO do not belong to me.**

* * *

**Leo**

On the flying-chariot ride to this 'Camp Half-Blood', Leo and Piper had a lot of time to talk. But they didn't. They were still in quite a bit of shock. Coach Hedge sat at the front with this other kid he called Will, just chatting. The Will kid held the reigns of two brown horses with wings. Piper and Leo stood at the back, holding onto the railing for dear life.

"Where are we going?" Piper asked eventually, yelling to be overheard over the thrashing cold wind.

"I already told you, Camp Half-Blood," said Hedge.

"But where exactly is this camp?" Leo asked.

"Long Island, New York," Coach Hedge decided, then turned back to Will, who seemed to be pretending to listen just to be polite. "Ever notice how that cloud looks like a duck? I think it looks like a duck…" Leo and Piper were left once again in an awkward silence.

"How did you think of that electricity thing?" asked Leo. "It was really incredible."

"Thanks," said Piper uncomfortably, blushing slightly. "I just thought that a little bit of its own medicine would be enough."

"But what I don't get is why he died, or turned into dust, or whatever," said Leo. "Shouldn't electricity make him stronger?"

"Well, it isn't the volts that killed him; it was the amperage," Piper explained. "Well, I guess the volts helped a little, but you know what I mean."

"You seem smart in this field of subject," said Leo.

"I just sort of listened to the unit when they taught it to us in school," she said.

"Hmm…" Leo said, thinking. They were left in silence again, and this time no one filled the gap.

Well, until they arrived at Camp Half-Blood.

The large chariot landed right at the foot of a hill. Leo and Piper climbed out groggily, and Leo considered making a run for it. This was getting all too crazy— Greek gods? Flying horses? Evil vapour monsters? This all sounded like some drunk kidnap attempt. But where would he run? And Piper? And those wind monsters had _definitely _been real. What if they came after him again? Leo decided to stay put, just in case.

He climbed up the hill with Piper right behind him.

There was only one thing to say about that place.

Wow.

Freaking.

_Wow._

Right down the hill sat an entire camp, bustling with teenagers and occasionally little kids. Most wore orange T-shirts like the one Will was wearing, some bore necklaces around their necks, and almost all of them had some sort of weapon at their side—even the five-year-old Leo managed to catch sight of.

A large and old building made of wood sat just down the hill, with a sign above the door that read _Big House. _Volleyball courts were visible to the right. A creek split the site right down the middle and an entire quarter of the camp was strawberry fields, another a thick and seemingly dangerous forest.

An amphitheatre and a climbing wall that had lava sprouting from the bottom sat to the right of the creek; an arena, an armoury and horse stables residing to the left. A beach was just visible a few miles down

It was wonderful.

Leo and Piper must have been standing at the top of that hill gaping in awe for a while, for after only seemingly moments later, Coach Hedge demanded, "Are you two cupcakes gonna stand there all day or what? Let's get a move on!" He trudged down the hill with Will, Leo and Piper following him.

"So, welcome to camp, guys," said Will. "I guess I'm going to be the one to explain this, but first of all—how old are you?"

"Fifteen," they said in unison.

"So you're late," said Will. "Don't worry. You'll be claimed today, then."

"Claimed?" asked Leo.

"When your godly parent tells the world you're their kid," explained Will. "Then you'll be separated into cabins according by your parent. Got it?"

"I—I think so," said Piper, rubbing the back of her neck nervously as some muscley guy with a long scar running down his face walked by her.

"Perfect!" said Will brightly. "So we'll have our tour, and hopefully by the time it's over we'll have our campfire."

Piper and Leo exchanged uncertain looks but followed the strange boy. "So, um, Will," said Piper just to start conversation. "Who's your godly parent?"

"Apollo," he said.

"Isn't that the guy who fell in love with a tree?" asked Leo.

"Technically he fell in love with the nymph before she was turned into a tree, but yeah. That guy."

"Oh," said Leo. "...That's cool."

There was an awkward silence for them to contemplate how stupid that sounded.

"So, just to narrow it down, which parent do you know is mortal for sure?" Will asked them both.

"My dad," said Piper. "Which means my godly parent is a girl."

"And you, Leo?"

"My mum," he said quietly.

"Cool," said Will. Leo had trouble processing this. So the guy Mom kept telling him about and repeating that one day he'd see was a god? A Greek _god?_ A large portion of his brain kept wondering if this was just one big mental hospital, with horses with wings and the magical kids with swords as well.

Then they passed the forges. "This is where the Hephaestus cabin usually works," said Will. Leo's ears picked up at the name.

"Festus?" he asked.

Will shook his head.

"Hephaestus," he repeated.

"Oh," said Leo. "Festus," he added, savouring the name. "Festus Festus Festus. _He-_Festus._ PPPPHHHHHHEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH—!"_

"That's enough," interrupted Will, looking slightly irritated by Leo's silly manner. Pointing at something else in the distance he added, "Now, over there is the pavilion, and…" Leo blocked out his voice, and peered inside the forges.

It was just like his Mom's machinery back in Houston. Hammers and other tools strewn nearly everywhere, complex and dangerous looking machines lying around, blueprints covering nearly every available space on the wall. It was one big giant _mess._

Leo loved it.

He couldn't help it—he walked inside. Everything was so perfect he was afraid to touch anything. No one was inside—probably getting prepared for that camp sing-a-long or whatever Will was talking about.

In an instant Leo knew what he would do. He shrugged off his knapsack from his shoulders and pulled out Chime. She had stopped working ever since she had been used to redirect Dylan's lightning, but maybe here with all these complex tools he could maybe fix her. Leo hoped so.

"What are you doing?" Will asked from the doorway, peering inside with Piper, taking in everything. Leo reached out and grabbed a screwdriver and yanked off Chime's metal coat. He laid the pieces to the side, doing the same thing with her cage. Soon only a jumble of wires and other confusing looking machinery sat before him.

Will began to step inside to stop Leo, but Piper held him back. "This is when the good part starts," she told him in an excited whisper.

Leo wasn't even quite sure what he was doing. He grabbed another jumble of wires, generators, small batteries and other confusing things and sort of pieced everything together. He had never worked with this much of a variety of instruments—some things he couldn't even give a name to.

It took him five minutes to finish up Chime, give or take a few seconds. He carefully placed the interior back inside the cage, and layered Chime's metal skin over top again. He pulled out the remote and carefully reached under Chime's stomach and turned her on. He took a few cautious steps back and flicked the control on the remote that told Chime to go up.

Nothing happened.

Then she twitched. Leo broke out into an enthusiastic grin.

She had never worked better. Now there were no glitches or bugs at all. She glided smoothly through the air with hardly any wavering. She barely flailed her wings as she flew. Leo swung her through the air toward Piper and Will, but at the last second swerved her away from their faces.

Will was shocked. "I'm stunned," he said, as if it wasn't clear enough already. "That's Hephaestus camper worthy."

Piper turned toward him. "What did you say?" she demanded.

"Hit the deck!" Leo yelled, Chime racing toward the door. Piper and Will understood and dropped to the floor right before the 15 mph bird flew above their heads. Chime flew out into the fading dusk, performing loop-the-loops at incredible speeds. A few campers stopped what they were doing to watch.

Leo spotted a bow and arrow target a few hundred meters away. His tongue sticking out in concentration, he shot Chime toward the black dot in the center, racing her faster and faster until she was past 30 mph.

_Thunk!_ Chime hit the bull's-eye, but instead of just vibrating on the spot she tore the middle section of the two-inch thick target right off, still attached to her beak. Chime flew back to Leo without wavering, and Leo took off the bulky cardboard from her beak once she had landed at his feet. A few people started clapping.

"Way to go," said Piper, joining him and stroking Chime's crest feathers as if she could actually feel them. She looked up at Leo with a proud smile on her face, but soon after that her expression turned to horror. She took a few cautious steps back, her hands out in front of her as if to protect heself.

"What?" Leo asked, looking around. "What is it? Is there something on my face?" He looked up and saw a flaming hammer flying above his head.

"Whoa!" he yelled, falling back to get away. He stood back up and tried to move away, but the hammer just followed him. Realizing it won't leave him, Leo pointed at it and asked the Apollo camper, "Does this usually happen? Like, do demigods get seriously messed up halos follow them on a daily basis or something?"

"That isn't a halo," said Will. "You're being claimed."

* * *

**Leo got claimed! *everyone gasps***

**GO TO MY POLL. NOW.**

**-o-O-o-**

**And now to answer some reviews! (I'll do this every so often, like every third or second chapter or something.)**

**_ThatOneFangirl5 (a.k.a. TooLazyToLogin): _Yay! You logged in! I personally find Piper and Leo good as friends and siblings and sometimes their couple fluff is cute. And, I agree, they're epic. And thank you for your "good at updating" comment! I hope it stays like this!  
**

_**SeaGreenAthena: **_**What does "mo" mean? (What!? Definitely my favourite [story] at the what!?)**

_**Guest:**_** Yes! Airbenders, unite! *high-fives myself, looks around, and begins to cry* _NO MORE AIRBENDERS! WAAHHH! _**

**_Gabsters: _Yes! Sokka is the best character! But air is the best element! *does awesome airbending move***

_**darkdaughterhades:**_** I don't think much of firebenders. _(...But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked... _and such.)**

_**CrazyChick: **_**THE CLASS ALL DIED. (Haha, just kidding.)**

**_Alyss369:_ Thank you! That warmed my heart!**

_**SeaGreenAthena**_** (again), [a different] _Guest,_ [another] _Guest,__ samm10,_ and _everyone else with this freaking question: _****Let me just start off by saying... WOW people want Romans in this story. ****Like, everyone keeps asking me if the Romans are going to be in here or not. Let me just say (if everything goes according to the plan), YES Romans will be in this story, near the middle/end. Unless I get some random inspiration that makes it otherwise, of course.**

**-o-O-o-**

**I will now use my awesome Avatar powers to force you to review and vote at my poll if you haven't already!**


	12. Campfire and Talks

**Hey, guys!**

**Disclaimer: This I do not own.**

* * *

**Piper**

"Oh," said Leo stupidly, staring at Will blankly. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "What was being claimed, again?" he asked.

Will face-palmed.

"You know what? Never mind," said Piper, stepping in for the save. "Could you be kind enough to finish your tour, Will?" she asked sweetly.

Will scratched the back of his head, speechless, as if Piper had just asked him out on a date or something. "Uh…sure," he decided, and Piper noticed that his eyes were a little glazed.

"What was that?" Leo asked as they walked, Chime perched on Piper's shoulder motionless.

"I dunno," said Piper. "I just have some kind of effect on people, when I ask them things."

"Like the time you talked the dealer into lending you his car," said Leo. Piper bit back an excited and desperate _"YES!"_

"Whatever," she said instead. Changing the subject, she asked, "Who do you think my parent is? I hope it's Artemis. She's so stealthy and cool and awesome."

"Good luck with that," said Will. "Artemis is a maiden goddess. She doesn't have any kids."

"Oh," said Piper, dejected.

"Don't worry, though," said Will as if to cheer her up. "There are other cool goddess, and if you _really _wanted to meet Artemis you could join her Hunters."

"That sounds cool," said Piper. "So the Hunters, like, hunt?"

"No, Piper," lectured Leo with a sigh. "They sit around a campfire drinking tea and squealing about how gorgeous their members look like in bikinis and gossiping about guys and how cute their pets in sweaters look."

Piper rolled her eyes. "So what other goddess are there?" she asked Will.

"Athena," said Will, "but she's probably not your parent since all her kids have blond hair and gray eyes. And Aphrodite, and Nike, and Hecate, and Aphrodite, and—"

"Wait," interrupted Leo. "There's a goddess of _afros?"_

Will face-palmed again. "You could get into some very serious trouble with the gods by saying that," he warned. "And no, Aphrodite doesn't have an afro. Well, I guess she could if she wanted to, being a goddess and all, but that's not the point. Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty. Most of her children are rude popular kids who do nothing but gossip all day, like Drew."

"Drew?" asked Piper. Even the name sounded mean and rich when Will said it.

"Yeah," said Will. "Don't wanna mess with her. You'll recognize her immediately; just look for the scent of rich perfume and a girl abusing her makeup. She also has charmspeak, the ability to…let's say, _persuade_ _intensely."_

Leo nodded as if he got it. "Beware the cute afro girls," he said. "Got it."

Piper nudged him. "Leo," she scolded quietly. Leo half raised his hands in surrender, half shrugged.

"But not all the kids of Aphrodite are evil cyborgs intent on ruining your social life," continued Will. "Take Lacy for example. She's a nice girl."

"That's good," said Piper. She would have said more, but that was when they reached the archery ranges. A guy in a wheelchair was teaching some kid how to shoot an arrow properly. He caught sight of Will, Piper and Leo, and left the troubled demigod to wheel over to them and talk.

"These the new kids?" he asked Will.

"Yes, Chiron," Will replied. "Leo and Piper. Leo's already been claimed—Hephaestus cabin."

"And I assume Piper hasn't?" the wheelchair guy—Chiron?—inquired. Will and Piper both nodded.

"Well, then, Piper, I'm sure you'll be claimed at the campfire tonight," Chiron said. "Will, can you take Leo to the Hephaestus cabin? I need to talk to Piper. _Privately."_

**-o-O-o-**

It was only after dinner and during the campfire that the pair of friends met up again. "Some day, huh," said Leo as Piper sat next to him. "The Hephaestus kids are really nice—they gave me some gold coins to buy some new stuff, and they explained the whole god/goddess concept to me. What did Chiron want to ask you?"

"Just some normal stuff," she replied casually. "Which gender does my mortal parent belong to, where I come from, who is my mortal parent, things like that. He also explained the Greek god thing too."

She didn't tell him what else Chiron told her.

"Claimed yet?" asked Leo. Piper shook her head.

"Tonight," she said. "Hopefully." She fanned her face. "Did you _have _to choose a place so close to the flames to sit? I feel like I'm melting."

"Oh," said Leo. "Really? The heat doesn't bother me too much."

"Well, it does for me," Piper, said, grabbing Leo by the upper arm. "Let's go somewhere farther away from the fire."

Some half-horse, half-man creature came out. Piper didn't know why she was so startled—that day she had seen the guy who flirted with her become a wind monster, her gym teacher become half goat, green-fleshed girls that made homes in trees, a dragon that guarded a pine tree as its job, and a camp full of kids who trained to fight monsters with real swords and knives.

"Welcome!" the horseman called out. With a shock, Piper realized that it was Chiron.

"Leoleoleoleoleoleoleoleoleo," Piper said quickly, tugging on his arm. "It's Chiron!" She pointed with her free hand.

"No, really?" Leo asked sarcastically. "I _noticed, _Piper."

So they roasted marshmallows and made smores. They had a sing-a-long, singing a song about the day some demigod killed drakon, which Piper found disgusting but fun to sing about. It went something like—

_Hey, hoe!  
__Grab your knives and swords!  
__We're gonna go out to kill-a-  
__Brute-to-day!__  
_

_Slash… Left!  
__Slash… Right!  
__Just be careful  
__Not get killed!__  
_

_Slash… Left!  
__Slash… Right!  
__Just make sure you  
__Dis-in-te-grate it good!__  
_

Then there were four more verses along with four more repeats of the chorus, but Piper didn't remember it all. She was sort of glad she didn't. Most of the couplets didn't even rhyme or make sense.

She kept waiting to be claimed, like Will said she would, with a desperate hope. But she knew it was unlikely, after what Chiron had told her. But the campfire finally ended and Piper still had no idea who her godly parent was. She sighed and made her way back to the omega of cabins dejectedly, Leo following her not too far behind.

"Why aren't you claimed?" he asked. "Will said you'd be claimed tonight."

"But I wasn't," said Piper miserably. "Why wasn't I?"

Leo didn't say anything for a while. "One of my siblings said that all demigods have to be claimed by thirteen—some sort of promise they made to this kid a month ago or something."

"But I'm already passed thirteen," said Piper, feeling much like a toddler about to have a tantrum. She resisted the urge to stop walking and stomp her foot in frustration. "Why am I not claimed?"

"It's okay," Leo comforted. "Whoever your mom is probably is a jerk for not claiming you."

"Thanks, Leo," said Piper, sighing. "I guess I better go to the Hermes cabin, then." They stopped at the camp store to buy a last-minute toothbrush, and Piper walked to the Hermes cabin alone.

It was spacious, to tell the truth, but worn down. Its dull brown-yellow paint was chipping from the walls, and even though it was big it looked as if there used to be many campers there, and there still were, but not as many as Piper expected judging on the size from the outside.

"Hey, new kid!" someone called from the top of a bunk. Piper turned to whoever it was, but he had already leaped off the bed and landed in front of her. The boy pointed to himself. Piper judged he was about a year older than her.

"The name's Connor," he announced. "Cabin counsellor with my brother, Travis. Who're you?"

"Piper," she told him simply.

"Claimed or unclaimed?" Connor continued.

"Uh…not claimed," said Piper. "Yet," she added.

"Cool," said Connor. "Until you're claimed, though, you'll be calling this place home." He squinted at her. "Say…aren't you a little old to be unclaimed?"

"I, uh…" Piper didn't know what to say. "I guess I am," she decided.

"Okay," said Connor simply as if he could believe it. He turned back toward the bunks. "Well, lucky for you we have a spare bunk right at the back, near the washrooms." He pointed down an aisle. "Well, other than that, well done for getting here alive." He cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled, _"ALRIGHT, CABIN! CURFEW IN TEN MINUTES!"_ Then he wandered off to break up some fight two younger kids were having.

Or to join it.

Probably join it.

* * *

**Ha, ha, typical Stoll.**

**And I tell you, there ****_is _****a reason why Piper was not claimed...yet. She will be, but I was thinking about it while I updated this am I told myself that I wasn't going to turn this story into a plot-less fic that just went on and on forever with no actual intention. So I thought about it intensely, and I came out with this.**

**I troll you. But not as much as Rick does.**

**Review, and vote at the paradox poll! Paradoxes! ****_WWHHHOOOOOOO!_**


	13. Arrows and Nymphs

**Hello, _hello, hello,_ _HELLO!_  
**

**Here I am with chapter 12! Everyone, let's celebrate!**

* * *

**Leo**

The next day was Thursday.

_No, duh!_

Leo woke groggily in his bed at the Hephaestus cabin. The cabin counsellor, Jake, was standing by some tables at the back of the cabin and making what appeared to be coffee.

"Good morning," he greeted when he saw Leo awake. Leo sat up in bed.

"What time is it?" he asked, scratching his head sleepily.

Jake estimated. "Seven in the morning, roughly," he decided.

Now that Leo was fully awake he was able to make sense of a lot more. Jake wasn't making coffee—he was simply fixing a coffee machine with a screwdriver. The only other people in the cabin was the little kid—Harley, Leo remembered—who was curled up in his bed, still snoring deeply.

"Where is everyone else?" asked Leo.

"Forges," said Jake. "They like to get there early. I was just fixing the coffee machine."

"Oh," said Leo stupidly. He still had a little bit of trouble, processing everything. Gods, demigods, monsters…and the most difficult of them all—centaurs. The only one in camp was Chiron, but whenever Leo saw him he got all jittery. Oh, and the harpies. Leo was terrified of them.

Jake held up a cup. "Want some?" he asked.

Leo shook his head. "No, thanks," he told him. "How long have you been working on it?" Leo asked. Jake shrugged.

"Thirty seconds, maybe," he replied.

"Whoa," said Leo. "But that thing was practically in chips last night."

So true. One of the campers—not saying whom—bumped into the coffee machine, and it fell to the floor with its bits scattering everywhere. (*_cough_LEOVALDEZ_cough_*) All his siblings had shrugged it off, saying they'd fix it in the morning. Leo hadn't been sure the coffee machine was even fixable.

"Yeah," said Jake casually. "We fix and build stuff. Might wanna join the rest of the cabin at the forges before heading to breakfast. After that we have archery."

"Oh, archery," said Leo. "Just gotta love those bows." He yawned before continuing. "Do you happen to know if we're allowed to use electronic birds as arrows by any chance?" he inquired.

Jake shook his head from behind a mug of coffee, taking his question seriously. Leo quickly got changed in the washroom, brushed his teeth and pulled on some shoes, quickly grabbing Chime and her remote on the way out. Harley was just getting up when he left, and Jake was already gone. On the way to the forges, he passed a couple calling each other cute names like _Seaweed Brain _and _Wise Girl_ (the latter wasn't much of an insult) while dueling each other to the death with swords before breakfast.

Leo _really _didn't get this demigod stuff.

"Hey, Leo," Nyssa called out when he got to the forges. Leo waved a friendly hello, and made his way to an empty worktable. He cleared it of extra screws and bolts, and laid Chime on the table.

"Second major surgery, girl," he muttered. "Ready for this?" Leo had been hoping that with all this high-tech demigod equipment he could be able to give Chime a will of her own—like an electronic pet.

He had barely started when Harley walked up to him. He was obviously still tired; rubbing his eyes groggily, his walking all staggered. "You might wanna make a sword first," he said, pointing over to a table in the corner of the room, where a sword and shield-making booth sat. "If you don't you might get killed." Leo ruffled the eight-year-old's hair.

"Thanks for the tip," he said, pushing Chime back into his bag and picking out sword items.

He hadn't even started when Jake announced that they'd be heading out for breakfast. Shouldering his bag with Chime inside it and laying his equipment down, Leo made his way out with the rest of his cabin.

The food was great, but what really amazed him were the magic plates and goblets. Want a cheeseburger? _Bam!_ Right there in front of you. Want some pasta! _Boom!_ Spaghetti without effort. And the goblets were the exact same. Jake told him this story where some kid from the Hermes cabin—Travis?—tried filling up his cup with Vodka. Didn't go so well for him.

But the one thing Leo didn't like about the meals was that they were forced to sit with their cabin. Not that there was anything wrong with his cabin—they were epically awesome—but Leo had really wanted to sit with Piper, his friend. She sat at the Hermes table alone, the oldest unclaimed kid at camp. She picked at her waffles with her fork, hardly having eaten any of it.

So after breakfast, right before he was scheduled to go shooting, Leo went up to Piper.

"Hey, it's not that bad," he said.

"Says you," said Piper, hugging herself. "You actually have a family."

They passed a clique of makeup-abusing girls, giggling and gossiping as if they had no care in the world. When they walked by them the leader, some Japanese girl, stopped.

"Oh, look," she called out. "It's an unclaimed girl."

"But aren't gods supposed to claim their kids at thirteen?" asked one of her friends, getting in to the act. The rest of them snickered.

"They are," said the Japanese girl cruelly. "I guess her parent is so embarrassed of her that she'd rather _break _a promise on the Styx than admit that that _Indian _is her daughter." They laughed and kept walking.

"Did she just call me Indian?" Piper asked, stopping and turning back to face the leaving group.

"Don't listen to them," Leo advised, grabbing Piper by the arm to pull her back.

"It's Native American!" Piper called out to them. "You don't use the term _Indian _anymore! It's rude!"

"And that must have been that Drew girl Will was talking about," said Leo. "Just ignore her."

"But isn't that cute," taunted one of Drew's friends, overhearing them and being unable to pass up the chance to bully. "It's her _boyfriend_, giving out advice on what to do."

"Bet the reason he's so ugly is because of his father," said Drew. "You girls remember the myth? The one where Hera disowns him because he's so _CLUMSY _and _UGLY _and _DISGUSTING?" _She laughed.

Leo felt as if he should defend his father somehow, but why would he want to fight against Drew? She was so pretty, and her voice was so luscious and persuasive and soft and...

Stop it! Leo chided himself. Charmspeak—_hello!_

But it was a good thing Piper wasn't affected that easily. "I'm sorry," she said sweetly, "but wasn't Aphrodite the one who started a ten year war because she wanted to be the prettiest?"

Drew wrinkled her nose. "I don't like you," she decided.

"You better not," said Piper. She and Leo walked off.

"Those guys are real b…" Leo's voice faltered at Piper's hard expression. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," said Piper. "Just…nothing. I gotta go. The Hermes cabin has rock climbing." Then she left without saying goodbye.

"Nice friend," Leo commented, watching her leave. Then he went off in the opposite direction, toward the archery stands.

Well, for the next hour or so, Leo managed not to kill anyone, but ended up sending a few of his half-siblings to the infirmary as well as an innocent nymph pedestrian. He noticed that a few of his siblings had made arrows of steel that always hit the target, no matter how off their aim was.

Leo should borrow one.

Of course, the centaur was teaching the lesson. He was currently scolding one of the Hephaestus campers for relying only on their metal arrows for guidance.

"What if on a real battlefield you ran out of those arrows, or you weren't able to reach them in the first place?" he was lecturing. "You must learn how to aim!"

"Blah blah blah," said Leo to himself, taking another try at shooting the arrow. He missed wildly, hitting a tree twenty yards away from the target. He was getting blisters on his fingers, and his arm was sore from holding up his bow for so long. (Chiron had insisted that he held the archer stance for seven minutes so he got used to it. He told Leo that all the campers did it, but Leo didn't really care.)

Leo shot another arrow, missed, and cried out in frustration. He felt Chiron place a caring hand on his shoulder from behind.

"Let's try again," he said. "Remember the T stance. Legs apart, sideways to the target, grabbing the string with the tips of two fingers—"

"I know, I know," said Leo, turning back to his stance. "Sheesh."

Chiron just looked at Leo curiously. "May I suggest turning a little to the right?" he asked. Leo grumbled something inaudible and did so. When he let go of the string it hit the target for once.

"An eight," Chiron noticed. "For the first day, I'm impressed. Anything you want to say, my boy?"

"Thank you," said Leo, feeling like a little kid whose mom just gave five dollars to spend on candy, and she was scolding him for not waiting to say thanks before stuffing his mouth with chocolate.

_I wonder how Piper is doing, _Leo thought as he loaded another arrow.

* * *

**Piper**

Piper was not having a good day.

And what didn't help was the rock-climbing wall.

_Nobody _had warned her that there would be freaking_ lava _trying to get her. _No one! _

Piper was miserable. She had burns on her arms and legs, the tips of her hair was scorched, her T-shirt was ripped, and one of her shoes was missing.

Then Travis announced they'd be heading for the sword-fighting arena, and Piper's day got a whole lot worse. She hoped she could sit out and just watch—seeing she didn't have a sword yet—but apparently not.

"So, everyone get into pairs," instructed Travis, "and, uh, whoever wins fights another winner, and the loser has to do fifty push-ups!"

Piper groaned mentally. Fifty push-ups for her it was. She walked up to Travis and told him, "I don't know how to use a sword. I don't even have one."

"Well, then," he said. "For now, go pick one from the shed. If you really like it, you can keep it."

"Really?" asked Piper. "Thank you. I really don't want to have to make my own."

"No one does," Travis said casually and with a shrug.

Piper ran all the way over to the weapon shed, and used the lock combo Travis told her to use. She opened the door, and—

Piper shrieked and fell back to get away from the giant hairy spider stuck to the side of the door. Piper scrambled back, but the spider didn't move. Curious, she stopped. Piper got to her feet and poked the spider with a nearby stick. It was plastic.

Piper groaned. "Dear whichever stupid newbie finds this," Piper read off a note attached to the spider. "This is the price you pay for being too lazy to build your own weapon. Kisses, the Stoll brothers." Piper sighed and picked up the spider, tossing it into the trashcan nearby, which she noticed was full of radioactive monster droppings.

Piper went back to the weapons. She chose a random sword and was about to leave when something else caught her eye.

It was a dagger—eighteen inches, sheathed in a leather scabbard. Piper laid down her sword and grabbed the dagger by the handle, taking it out of its sheath. The blade gleamed and Piper could clearly see her reflection in it. She checked the casing for a name—Katoptris. Piper looked around to see if anyone was watching, and tied the dagger to her belt, pulling her shirt over it so that no one would see it. She closed the shed door once again and headed out for the fighting arena, grabbing the other sword.

Piper didn't know _why _she had stolen Katoptris. It had just seemed cool. As if…as if in a different time, she was the rightful owner of the dagger.

Travis was waiting for her. "Ready?" he asked with a grin.

"You are Mr. Hilarious," said Piper, referring to his prank back at the shed. She took out her sword and asked, "Uh, how do you hold this thing?"

So for the next hour Piper learned how to hold the sword. By the end of her lesson, she had learned exactly how to stand and not fall while fighting. Travis announced that after lunch was free time for everyone. Piper was practically skipping back to the mess hall.

"Where do you wish to go, Mme. McLean?" Leo asked regally after lunch was finished.

"The lake," said Piper. "I wanna try those canoes."

"Sounds to me that you want a challenge," said Leo.

"Bring it," said Piper, and they raced for the lake where the canoes were tied. Leo climbed into one and Piper another, pushed off with their paddles and went gliding over the water.

"First one to tip the other's boat wins," said Piper.

"You are so dead," said Leo, and pushed Piper's canoe with his paddle. Piper kept balance and did the same to Leo's. Leo reached out and grabbed Piper's boat by the side, pushing it away from his as far as he could. Piper felt the boat tipping, so she did the reasonable thing—whack Leo's arm until he let go.

Well, he did. But that caused Piper's canoe to tip back to the left, toward Leo. She barely had time to screech before the canoe tipped over onto Leo's, she falling on top of him. Her extra momentum pulled Leo's canoe down, dropping them both into the water.

Piper's head bobbed above the water. She could see Leo's a few feet away. They both started laughing, laughing so hard that they eventually had to grab onto the overturned canoes for support if they didn't want to drown themselves.

"Hey!" someone nearby yelled. Piper nearly went under trying to find the source of the voice. It was a water nymph, poking her head out of the water a few yards in front of her.

"Oh," said Piper, treading water. "It's just a nymph."

"Just a nymph?" the nymph shrieked. Her petite features were extorted with fury. "This is my _home, _you ignorant demigods! You can't just come waltzing in without my permission!"

"Sorry, we didn't know," said Piper.

"I think I've made it pretty clear so far!" yelled the nymph, pointing at a sign next to the canoes saying, _Do Not Enter Without Permission._

"Oh," said Piper. "Well, we didn't see it, and we don't really know the rules, seeing that we're newbies, and—"

"They always say that!" yelled the nymph. "Always, always, always! You humans only think about yourselves." She adopted a deeper voice in imitation of a man. _"Hey! Let's go tear down a forest that nymphs and animals call home, and dump all our garbage into the lakes, and pollute the air just so we can watch TV for a few hours."_ Her voice went back to her high shrill. "So selfish! Nymphs and wildlife die because humans only think about themselves!" A second later she was beside Leo and punching him on the arm furiously.

"Well, we're sorry," said Leo, looking unsurely at the nymph pounding on him.

"You better be!" the nymph yelled. She dove back underwater, leaving Piper and Leo alone in the middle of the lake.

"Do you really think she'll let us go that easily?" asked Leo.

Piper shook her head. "Let's get out of here before she comes to her senses and drowns us."

* * *

**Nymphs can kill. Especially if they're mad at you.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own. **

**REVIEW! Or... OR I WON'T CONTINUE!**

**(Just kidding. I don't really mean that. But still, the more reviews the quicker the update! You know you want that...!)**


	14. Harpies and Memories

**YO! MY PEEPS! *jumps into laptop and gives everyone reading this a high-five***

**Disclaimer: I do not own this.**

**I'm super excited because school ends in a week! YAY!**

**Oh, and before I forget, HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER, EVERYBODY!**

**(I'm listening to Gangnam Style while writing this... Fail. That's all I can say to myself right now.)**

* * *

**Leo**

Leo finally had time to work on Chime that evening, while the rest of his cabin was getting ready for bed. He snuck into the forges quietly, just in case, and closed the door behind him slowly. He sighed in relief when he found that no one had followed him, and turned on the lights. The vast room was illuminated, and he wandered down the aisles until he came to an empty table free of anything. Leo pulled of his bag and took out Chime, laying her on her side on the table counter. He laid her remote next to her. He hoped that by the end of next week she wouldn't need it anymore.

Leo went to work. His hands flew everywhere, fixing, tightening, rearranging, adjusting, replacing. He scarcely knew what he was doing, but by the time he was satisfied with his progress, nearly three hours had passed. That meant curfew had passed over half an hour ago.

Leo quietly tucked Chime and her remote into his bag again, and cleaned up his worktable as best as he could. Then he crept over to the lights and turned them off quietly. He wondered if he should just stay there the night so the cleaning harpies wouldn't find him. (Jake had told him about them too.) But then he realized that would be a stupid mistake, seeing as the harpies went into all the buildings to clean them up. He'd be caught unless he hid somewhere even monsters wouldn't smell him.

So Leo decided to risk it. He peered out the window to see if the coast was clear, and nearly had a heart failure. A harpy stood right outside the pane, so close Leo could reach out and touch her if the window glass didn't prevent it. Fortunately, the harpy had her back to Leo, and hadn't noticed him slink back down underneath the window out of view.

He sat there, waiting for the harpy to leave. It was only fifteen minutes later that he had the nerve to look out again to check if the coast was clear. It was. He shouldered his bag and opened the forge door quietly, slinking out and closing it behind him.

"And then the stupid kid was all like, 'hey, you better not kill me', trying to sound all macho and stuff with his rusty old piece of junk that he called a sword. But I got him good. That's what pests get for sneaking out past curfew," a harpy said to her friend, rounding a corner toward the forges. Leo's heart stopped beating for two seconds.

No time to ponder. Leo dodged into the shadows of the building and quickly prayed to his dad that the harpies would go inside the forges and not around them.

And they did. Still jabbering loudly, the two harpies started inside. Leo sighed in relief.

"Wait," one of them said. "I smell demigod."

"No, really?" asked her friend sarcastically. "I thought I smelled, oh, yeah, maybe a hundred of them. We're living in a camp full of half-bloods—what did you think you'd smell?"

"No," he friend said. "I mean I smell a demigod nearby. Like, right around the corner."

Leo strangled down a terrified squeak.

"Like last week when you thought you heard two half-bloods sneaking out toward the beach and it turned out to be just two wind nymphs playing hide-and-go-seek?" her friend asked. "And the week before that, when you swore a demigod was hiding out at the mess hall to practice sword-fighting? Come on. We have machinery to polish." And with that the second harpy dragged her friend inside the forges, leaving Leo to safety.

He waited five minutes before moving from his safe spot on the side of the forges. Finally, Leo shouldered his bag and tiptoed his way back to the Hephaestus cabin, disabling the seven and a half alarms before entering. (The half is courtesy of Harley.) Without bothering to change or even brush his teeth, Leo collapsed into slumber as his head hit the pillow, tossing Chime's bag beside his bed.

Tomorrow he'd continue his work. But not past curfew. Never again.

* * *

**Piper**

That night Piper couldn't get to sleep. She stared up at the bunk above her at the Hermes cabin, thinking about many things—how incredibly awesome and terrifying this all was, how come this truth she was living in was actually real, and why she got stuck in the oldest and smelliest cabin in the entire camp. As much as she wanted to close her eyes and give in to slumber after this second exhausting day, her brain kept telling her, _No, stay awake! _

Piper wondered what her father was doing right then at that moment. Probably asleep, she decided. Did he even know she left the Wilderness School? Was he awake with worry, not knowing where his little girl was? Or was everything normal in his life? Piper had no means of knowing, though she hoped that her father was completely clueless of her transfer. He would be better off that way, she reasoned. She wanted to call him, just to hear his voice, but what would she tell him?

_Oh, hey, Dad! Guess what I learned today? It turns out that Mom is actually some Greek goddess from three millennia ago, which makes me half mortal, half god! Isn't that fun? But on the downside, monsters attack us a lot, like Wednesday for instance, when my jerk of a classmate turned into a wind monster and tried to kill me! But luckily my gym teacher is actually a goat-man and helped us defeat the wind monster! And now we live in this place called Camp Half-Blood for other kids like us to train to kill monsters, and all the Greek myths are true events that occurred a long time ago, and the kids here won't shut up about this Percy Jackson guy, saying that he's the reason I should be claimed or whatever! Well, hope you're having fun at your place! This phone call probably just sent up a smoke signal to all the monsters in a twenty-mile radius of my whereabouts, so I gotta hang up now! Bye!_

Somehow, Piper had a feeling her dad wouldn't buy it. That, or it would only succeed in completely freaking him out.

She also thought about other things, like what Chiron had told her the day she and Leo arrived at camp. Piper wasn't quite sure exactly how their conversation had gone, seeing how confusing the whole concept was, but she remembered the important bits on the subject.

**-o-O-o-**

_"So, Piper," Chiron said to her, wheeling himself along in his wheelchair on the path. "What do you think of this new life of yours so far?"_

_"It's…new," Piper decided. "Definitely impossible."_

_"Good," said Chiron. "We like impossible, eh?" He chuckled._

_Piper just nodded. They passed by a few other demigods, who waved hello to Chiron. Chiron nodded to acknowledge them back. They talked a little longer, him asking normal questions that Piper expected him to ask. But then they stopped near the stables, where no one except a few winged horses stood nearby._

_"Piper, I need to tell you something important," he said. "I have a feeling you might not be claimed like your friend Leo was."_

_"What do you mean?" asked Piper. "Are you saying I'm not a demigod? After all this? Man, this is depressing in a good way." She paused. "Is that possible? Being upset but extremely glad at the same time?"_

_"Eh, not sure," said Chiron. "And you are a demigod. You wouldn't have been able to enter the camp if you weren't."_

_"Dang it," Piper said, snapping her fingers._

_"Actually, what I'm about to tell you is much more…complicated. You see…eh, we have an oracle at camp."_

_"An oracle?" Piper asked dumbly, having no clue what that was._

_"Yes, yes, yes," said Chiron. "Her name's Rachel. She's a mortal, has red hair, et cetera et cetera. Knowing the consequences of phoning camp with a modern-day phone for more than five minutes, she's flying herself over to New York in a few days to tell us the prophecy she had spilled in the middle of her Social Studies class."_

_Piper allowed a smile. "That must have been embarrassing," she said._

_"Indeed," said Chiron, nodding. "I won't confuse you any more than I have to, but the prophecy was four verses long and said something about damaged time. I will have her repeat it to the camp after capture-the-flag on Friday." _

_"What do you mean, damaged time?" asked Piper._

_"Well, Piper," said Chiron. "What I'm thinking is that somehow time was supposed to go one way, but something happened and it has been changed. Damaged time. And, well, the last time something like this happened was millennia ago, before even _I_ was born. And even that was just a legend."_

_"Wait," said Piper, eyebrows furrowing, looking more closely at the handicapped man that probably wasn't even handicapped. "How old are you?"_

_"Unimportant," Chiron dismissed easily. __"But I've heard stories, though," continued Chiron without skipping a beat, "that in damaged time…well…to keep balance and the entire universe from exploding—"_

_"Exploding?" demanded Piper, horrified._

_"—every promise ever made throughout history is broken," finished Chiron. Piper relaxed a little._

_"Oh," she said. _

_There was a pause. _

_"I didn't want to be the one to ask the most obvious questions, but it appears I will have to make due. So?"_

_"So?" asked Chiron, seemingly outraged. "It means that even the unbreakable promises are now breakable! Including the ones on the River Styx!"_

_Silence._

_"I have no clue what you mean, old man," Piper said._

_"The faithful and, well, _good_ gods would keep their promises just because it is the right thing to do," explained Chiron. "But to the disloyal, they'll take advantage of this problem and break their solemn swear. Now, there once was a boy, Percy Jackson, and he made all the gods swear on the River Styx that they'd claim their children."_

_"So what you're saying is that my mom won't claim me?" demanded Piper, unable to believe it. "This is just...this is just _mean!"

_"It is, but there is always a possibility that she is one of the good gods and will claim you," said Chiron. "I just wanted to tell you this just so that you aren't as disappointed at the campfire tonight if nothing happens. And I said_ if. _But the gods haven't exactly been talk-active to us ever since the and of the Second Titan war, so this just may be for those reasons, and there is nothing wrong with time. Or perhaps there is nothing wrong at all and you will be claimed as usual." _

_"Hopefully," Piper said, hugging herself and averting the gaze of the man. _

_"There is hardly a chance that she wouldn't claim you," said Chiron. "You are a marvellous young girl, Piper. I wouldn't be surprised if your mother claimed you before the campfire, like Hephaestus did to your friend Leo."_

**-o-O-o-**

But she hadn't.

Piper fidgeted with her fingers, willing herself to fall asleep. After a minute or so, she turned over in bed and squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to sleep and not dream about evil god parents and red-headed oracles.

* * *

**So now the story actually gets somewhere...FINALLY!**

**Now reviews!**

**-o-O-o-**

_**Gabsters:**_** I love the suggestion! I can add it in somewhere in the future, maybe somewhere where I have a break in the plot. And I would love to do a story with you! May the gods be ever in your favour! (See what I did there? _SEE IT!? _*pause, then sigh* I get too overexcited over nothing...)**

_**Batmanpotterhead:**_** Thank you for reviewing the first three chapters! And just so you know, one of the reasons I _started _this story was because there weren't too many fanfictions out there about Leo and Piper at the Wilderness School, and at CHB, but WITHOUT Jason.**

_**Ajain:**_** You bet I'm planning to continue!**

**_Galena of the Night: _OHMIGODS YOU JUST MADE MY DAY WITH THAT SIMPLE TWO SENTENCED REVIEW. THANK YOU!**

_**elliefs:**_** You really want Percy and Annabeth in here, don't you. (That wasn't even a question, just a fact.) They'll be mentioned and make minor appearances, I promise, but I'm not too sure they'll be a big thing. Maybe I'll add them in near the end, just for you. :D**

**-o-O-o-**

**Now you must review...if you want to see if Piper will ever be claimed! (...But didn't I already tell you she was going to be for sure...? ...But...hmm... Okay, forget what I said in the previous chapters. PIPER WILL NOT BE CLAIMED IF YOU DO NOT REVIEW.)**

** They don't suspect a thing...**

**...OPPA GANGNAM STYLE! (Still listening to it.)**


	15. Games and Prophecies

**grwashdoihnweflksdbFDIOSAFHDSJKFNNUSujuifdshjkafdb siufsdaljfdbfuslijekafndshfburilfeawifhruriurehgrj eiowkjterwuqtipwqfhjdwgbruewisghdjkhluaihutigbfnhd sjkgflnvufdispguitdjkfgnuipsughfsiojkgknduispgtroi hgsfjdgpirhgsijfdkssgnioghroioiefjdisak;lgfoei;asd kjnfgsrfhudn**

**(That was me freaking out on my keyboard.)**

**OHMIGODS GUYS, over seventy reviews! You guys totally deserve virtual cookies!**

**(::) (::) (::) (::) \_/ ****(::) (::) (::) (::)**

**Last weekend of the school year! So excited! Four more days, and then it's swimming and summer camps and reading in the hammock in my backyard (assuming it'll never rain, of course)! **

* * *

**Leo**

Throughout the hours of the next day, nothing happened to Piper. No halo, no claiming, no parent. Nada. She still seemed pretty miffed about it, though she didn't complain too much. Once or twice she's bring it up, how embarrassing it all was, how _annoying _it all was, but then she'd let the subject drop again and they'd start talking about something else.

"Capture-the-flag tonight," some black-haired, green-eyed guy told his girlfriend as they walked past Leo and Piper. "Athena versus Poseidon."

"Hope you brought your armour, Seaweed Brain," his girlfriend teased. "You're going to need it."

"Capture-the-flag?" Leo asked Piper once they were gone. "Like, normal capture-the-flag, or capture-the-flag demigod style with a bunch of hellhounds chasing you while you hack your way through enemy lines?"

"Way to make me feel uneasy about it," said Piper, rolling her eyes. "The entire Hermes cabin is talking about this game—saying you haven't lived until you've played it or something. It's pretty much exactly how you described it."

"Way to make me feel uneasy about it," Leo mimicked.

So that evening they ate their heartful and fulfilling meals and readied themselves for the game. Leo and Piper were (fortunately) on the same team, even though Leo would be setting up defending traps near their flag with the Demeter cabin and the rest of the Hephaestus campers while Piper went with the Hermes cabin to create a distraction over to the far left of the forest. They had gotten a fairly good team, which included the Apollo, Poseidon and Demeter cabins, but not the Ares or Hecate, and not to mention Athena, who always had this plan that was always executed perfectly.

Piper gave Leo a good-luck thumbs up before heading off with the rest of her (hopefully) temporary cabin. Leo wasted no time watching her leave—he got to work immediately, helping Nyssa and Jake with one of the more complex traps. The Apollo team watched above, hiding in the trees with their arrows, playing defence.

Leo managed to get two-and-a-half traps set with some Demeter kid called Miranda Gardiner before the first enemies crossed over. They weren't even trying to hide themselves, but instead talking and blabbing to each other as if they had no care in the world—or the game.

"So the stupid little runt got what he deserved," one of them was finishing. Leo and Miranda dove behind a nearby bush, Leo flicking the mechanical traps on. Miranda tapped him on the shoulder and mouthed, _Hecate. _Leo gritted his teeth. Great. If they found them, they'd be burping out frogs for a week.

The Apollo kids fired, distracting them from their traps. One of the campers shot an incantation so fast that that the three arrows disintegrated mid-air, turning them to black ash before they hit the ground. Four more arrows shot out, but they were all easily dodged.

"Stupid archers," muttered one of them, flicking off arrow dust. "Getting ashes all over my armour." The two of them marched on, right into the two traps Leo and Miranda had laid out.

Leo had been still mentally debating if whether or not he should ditch Miranda and try to run for it, when one of the Hecate kids yelled out, "Hey!" and went silent. Leo and Miranda peered from behind their bush to find one of the campers hanging upside-down from the ankle, weapon and source of power (a.k.a. Harry Potter wand) lying beneath him just out of arm's reach, and the second one wrapped in vines and held two feet in the air, a twig wrapped around his mouth so he couldn't yell a spell that would blast Leo to bits.

"Thank the gods for modern-day mechanically engineering and Demeter-plant magic," Leo muttered to himself. Miranda grinned and fist-bumped him, and they ran off in their own directions to help lay out more traps for whoever needed them.

Well, the game promptly ended and their team won, all because of this Poseidon kid who seemed to be everyone's celebrity. The Ares warriors seemed awfully upset, especially this one girl who looked as if she could turn Leo into a relatively appetising dish of entrails and organs without the slightest amount of effort, as well as the Athena cabin.

Seeing as their team's flag was already Poseidon, the Hermes cabin received the victory because of their distraction being the thing that had actually allowed the Person Jackson (or something like that) actually capture the other team's flag.

Piper was bouncing with glee as they walked toward the campfire after the game. (Did they really have one of these every night?) "That was fun, that was fun, that was fun," she kept repeating to her skip. "There was this one time this Ares camper was about to slaughter me, and then out of nowhere this hellhound appeared and chased him away." She stopped skipping and sighed dreamily. "You can never get bored in this place."

"Capture-the-flag is _so _boring," someone walking by them said to her friend. Leo and Piper hurried to one side of the path to let Drew and one of her Aphrodite siblings walk by. She didn't even acknowledge them. "I mean, what's the point of running around with swords and hacking monsters just to get a stupid flag? I say pageants have much more excitement than _this…" _Drew's voice trailed off as she got farther away.

Leo nudged Piper. "You are so daughter of Aphrodite," he told her.

"You are so right," said Piper, mimicking Drew's oh-my-gods-I'm-so-popular voice. "We could totally be BFFs and text every day and do our hair while we swoon over a poster of One Direction and gossip and prank-call our crushes and make out with random guys and do other girly-girl popular stuff."

This thought was so absurd that they both burst out laughing. Drew and her friend turned around to see what was happening and roll their eyes, and Drew muttered something probably very mean and sassy but inaudible.

At the campfire, Piper was forced to sit with the Hermes kids, the champions of the game, so Leo just sat with the rest of his cabin. Lucky for him (sarcasm in use) he got a seat right next to Harley, who wouldn't shut up about his hero, Percy Jackson. Leo pretended to pay attention, but was really sneaking glances at Piper that said, _Help. Me._

"And then Clarrise dunked his head in the toilet! But not for long, and Percy made the entire washroom explode with water! And then Luke taught him how to fight, and he beat up a lot of monsters too! And there was this one time where he, his half-brother and Annabeth took off on fish-ponies for the Princess Andromeda! And another time, where he fought Medusa and won! It was so cool—oh, and then he sent Medusa's head to his dad on Olympus! And—!"

"That's pretty wicked, Harley," interrupted Leo, praying to his father that Harley would just shut up.

"I know!" yelled Harley, his eyes lighting up. Leo understood immediately his mistake of speaking up. "And this other time—!"

Luckily Chiron saved Leo from listening any more. "Campers!" he announced loudly for all to hear. "We have a special visitor today—please welcome back Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Oracle of Delphi!"

"Rachel!" some younger kids cheered, including Harley. Some redhead chick stood up from her seat near the front and walked over to Chiron.

"Rachel here has delivered a prophecy," Chiron continued.

"In the middle of Social Studies," finished Rachel. "As you can imagine, my fellow classmates will be calling me a freak from now on, but anyway, the prophecy went something like this." She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to remember how it went. Then she started—

_"When the past isn't told correctly,  
__And we're living in damaged time—  
__The Lost Heroes haven't been found yet,  
__So their journeys have never been rhymed."__  
_

Rachel looked around to make sure she still had everyone's attention, then continued.

_"The Romans are missing their role model,  
__The person we Greeks should have exchanged,  
__But the goddess of marriage was reluctant,  
__And that has all been changed.__  
_

_"Now there is only one possible way  
__To save the future's fate;  
__The forge and the dove must work together to  
__Change their persuasive rate.__  
_

_"This way is the only means  
__To end these real high stakes,  
__But sometimes even a goddess  
__Can make some very deadly mistakes."__  
_

* * *

***silence***

**What the heck does that mean? I guess you'll never know unless you review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own HoO. I forgot to mention that at the beginning because of the cookies! :)**

**And thank you for the wonderful reviewer _TheColorsOfTheRainbow_, who reviewed every chapter (I'm pretty sure it was all of them), even if it was to point out a funny quote. (And I read your story. Chapter Five literally made me cry.)**

**Now review, because that prophecy took a while to write. (And I know it doesn't follow the same prophecy format it's supposed to. So what? I'm making this story unique!)**


	16. Explanations and Texts

**GGAAAHHH!**

**fdoislfndsiuo;hnadkslg495furedisakljbferiusne4afbi lgufhkzndgd09sfuhjuhilngteruihewiotjkndsfuyaihlrnj dfbasiyghr7u84iaesgnyyru3ewo0219u82ruwqdpiqdojsnhb qwuoNJRHBTGRUFOHJ3RNEwhunjekwhqyug4qiw23**

**(Me freaking out again.)**

**EIGHTY-ONE reviews? EIGHTY-ONE FLIPPIN' REVIEWS!?**

**I love you guys. (::) (::)**

**And, also...**

**HOUSE. OF. FREAKING. HADES.**

** I read the Son of Sobek ebook version leak. It tells us absolutely nothing except that the demigods have just made themselves some new enemies! I. NEED. MORE. INFO. THAN. THAT. ****WE. ALREADY. KNOW. EVERYONE. HATES. THE DEMIGODS.**

**RICK. YOU. TROLLER. **

**jiofklamdsfnwriqofjemaksldjfnrhoadis;lmkfnjgrfodis jklmfgrnfopjadmklgtrnfldkseekwljhfnr;oalnfbrui3eiw opjOPFQDIWerwfgirjifdljiwoqerlmkihq0rewijpknjqhdiw ojnqfhjadinkhbgr9jiohut5r0ue8jqiwpohdsf9uwbgyfojdi **

**AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!**

* * *

**Piper**

No one spoke. No one moved. No one did anything but stare at Rachel.

"Rachel," said Chiron, snapping the tension in two. "What do you suppose those lines mean?"

"Well, the first verse is pretty self-explanatory," the girl explained. "I believe the series of events starts with some pretty wicked and strong magic, used when someone from the future came here—to the past—and changed something involving lost heroes. The 'lost heroes' part becomes clearer in the second verse, when it says 'the Romans are missing their role model, the person we Greeks should have exchanged'. I don't know what that means, but apparently those 'exchanged' people are the lost heroes, maybe because they were switched involuntarily. Maybe? I don't know. The goddess of marriage mentioned is for sure Hera, she being the only goddess of marriage around, and she being reluctant is probably what was altered from original time."

Piper waited for someone to yell, "That's crazy!" or, "You're insane!" or, "Finally the pressure of being an oracle cracked her. C'mon, guys, let's go get a soda." But no one did. Perhaps they were all used to crazy prophesies like this?

Wow. Demigods are weird.

"The third verse probably means that the occurrence is inevitable, but the result isn't. A child of Hephaestus and of Aphrodite must work together to change their 'persuasive rate'. I believe persuasive rate could mean"—here Rachel paused to wince—"a charmspeaker."

"A charmspeaker?" someone in the crowd demanded, standing up. It was Drew. "Well, I'm the only charmspeaker in camp. Does that mean I'm supposed to be a part of this prophecy?"

Rachel was still wincing. "With a son or daughter of Hephaestus, yes," she finished.

Drew sighed and looked down at her perfectly manicured nails in boredom. "What would you guys do without me?" she said. She turned toward the area of where the Hephaestus kids sat and looked among them as if she were deciding whom she could work with. "Nyssa," she decided, probably choosing the girl who she found the least revolting.

"Not so fast," said a voice from nowhere. Demigods were instantly on their feet and had their weapons pulled out, ready to fight.

The voice laughed. "Sorry, I just love doing that." A woman walked to the campfire where Rachel and Chiron stood. She was probably the most amazing person Piper had ever seen. She looked old enough to be a college student, with dark brown curls cascading past her shoulders, flawless skin, super-cute ripped skinny jeans, and a loose flower-patterned tank top. She belonged in one of those weight-losing magazines, Piper thought. Or on a runway, or in a music video, or…

Piper's thoughts trailed off.

"Mom?" Drew asked weakly. Apparently Piper wasn't the only one swayed by this person.

"Yes yes, hi, Drew, honey," the woman said. She looked around at the campers. "It was _such _a long time since I've been here," she said, clasping her hands together in joy. Then she seemed to notice the weapons. "Oh, you can put those away now, dears."

The demigods did, sitting back down reluctantly. Aphrodite looked around expectantly. "What, no kneeling?" she demanded. "I'm a _goddess, _you worthless human, people, creature-thingies. Now kneel before me!" She pointed at the ground as if ordering around a very disobedient puppy.

The demigods stood up again and knelt.

"I am here to bestow some godly wisdom upon you here today," Aphrodite continued, her anger on the demigods' lack of respect disintegrating as quickly as it had come. "It's... oh, wait, I got a text." The goddess pulled out a cell phone from her back pocket. "It's from Ares," she whispered to the closest person standing next to her, who just happened to be Rachel. Aphrodite performed some speed-texting for about minute or two, the demigods just kneeling there in an awkward silence.

Finally Aphrodite seemed to notice they were still there. _g2g _she tapped quickly, kissed her fingers and placed them on the screen, sent the message, and returned her phone to her pocket. "Now, where was I…? Oh, yeah, silly me!" She laughed. None of t he demigods were amused. "There's this war coming up, and it's really, really bad, but unfortunately no one knows about it 'cause Hera didn't do something! Yay! What was that? I don't know and don't care, it's not my job." Aphrodite looked around at the demigods. "Oh, you can get up now," she half-snapped, her sudden change of mood overcoming her once again. The half-bloods thankfully got up from their kneeling positions and sat back down.

"And, whatever, but Zeus sent me to send this message, even though we're not supposed to come in contact with the demigods and supposed to stay quiet or whatever because of this upcoming war. And since I'm so mystical, I'll warn you guys that the real great prophecy isn't the one Redhead over here just said." She gestured Rachel with a curt cock of the head in the oracle's direction.

Aphrodite was about to continue when she stopped, thinking to herself. "But of course it wouldn't be the next great prophecy, the prophecy is the seven half-bloods thing, to storm or fire the world must fall and what-not, but you guys wouldn't know that, and—" She shook her head. "Anyway, once you get rid of this prophecy—" she pointed at Rachel again "—you get rid of your problem, and... wait. But what about the... never mind. Hera deals with that. Oh, look, I got another text!"

"Deals with what!?" Piper demanded without really meaning to. Aphrodite froze pulling out her phone to stare blankly at the girl, as did the rest of the campers. All her Hermes buddies scooted away from her as if she had suddenly received a contagious plague they didn't want to catch. Aphrodite gestured to Piper for her walk up to the front. She knew she was in trouble.

Piper wrung her hands and shakily stood up. Aphrodite gestured for her to walk over again, and Piper did. She wondered if she could make a run for it; Aphrodite was obviously not the brightest goddess in the Greek world. But she decided against it. She was still a goddess.

Aphrodite cupped Piper's face in her hands so that she could have a good look at her. "My, my, my," she said in a soft voice no one was expecting. (Outrage, yes. A slap, yes. A fun session of turn-the-demigod-scum-into-a-feathery-chicken-and- then-feed-it-to-some-weird-monster-with-a-gazillio n-teeth, yes. But this? Absolutely not.) "You look just like your father," she continued.

"My—My dad?" Piper choked.

"He was such a fine lad," said Aphrodite, pouting at the memory. "I really do miss him."

"My—My dad?" Piper choked out again. "You knew my _dad?"_

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Well, of course I would know your father. If I didn't, you probably wouldn't be here right now!" She laughed, letting go of Piper's face.

Piper's expression changed dramatically. "You—You're my _mom?" _she squeaked, taking a few steps back away from the woman.

Aphrodite stopped laughing abruptly. "Well it was kind of obvious after a while," she said scornfully, pulling out her phone again. "Have a look at this." She scrolled through her hundreds of contacts, and there, right in the M section, stood Piper's father's name—Tristan McLean.

"He was so cute," Aphrodite said, taking back the phone and staring at his picture a little while. "Then he grew up to be handsome. And successful." She turned the phone off. "Good luck, Piper," she said, patting her daughter on the shoulder and smiling at her.

Then she turned to Chiron.

"AND YOU SAID I WOULDN'T CLAIM HER!" she yelled. "WHO'S YELLING NOW, _HORSE!?"_

Then Aphrodite disappeared in a flash of stunning light, leaving everyone to gap at Piper.

"No. Freaking. Way," said Drew.

Piper sighed. "My thoughts exactly," she muttered.

* * *

**YAY! Piper was finally claimed! (It's about time too.)**

**A few more days, guys. A few more days and FINALLY school will be over. **

**Now, some reviews!**

**-o-O-o-**

_**CrazyChick:**_** I try. I really, really do. And thank you. **

_**TheColorsOfTheRainbow: **_**OHMIGODS I LOVED YOUR STORY! And crying is good! It means you are a good enough writer that your story somehow found its way into the reader's heart. Inform me when chappie six is up, because I don't have an account on that particular website. (But have you actually seen someone being bullied like that?)**

_**slenderniece:**_** (::) (::) COOKIES! (::) (::) (And, WHAT? The freaking SEVENTH!?)**

_**Gabsters:**_** WHAT!? THE THIRTY-FIRST OF MAY!? What is wrong with these schools?! **

_**DEDEBUG9:**_** Ugh, I'm excited too. And thank you!**

_**DAUGHTER-OF-APOLLO: **_**tttttttthank you! **

_**Guest:**_** Between great and good...so awesome?**

**-o-O-o-**

**And...REVIEW! If we ever hit a hundred, I'll... ...I'll... DEDICATE THE CHAPTER IT LANDS ON TO THE HUNDREDTH REVIEWER! So REVIEW! And, also, I'll, uh...GIVE THEM A BUNCH OF VIRTUAL COOKIES! **

**NOTHING GETS BETTER THAN THAT!**

**(And, remember, I don't own HoO!)**


	17. Siblings and Goggles

**BLAH!**

**Hello, my people. How are you today?**

**SCHOOL IS OVER! YES!**

**And guess who was emotionally broken inside when they found the average on their report card! ME!**

**And guess who finally got over it! NOT ME!**

**And guess who's already got thirty-three of the one hundred eighteen elements of the periodic table memorized... in SONG!**

**ME! (I seriously need to get a life.)**

**Disclaimer: Just remember, I do not own this!**

* * *

**Piper**

Piper woke up in her bed at the Aphrodite cabin the next Saturday. So much had changed in so little days. First finding out she was a demigod, then her mom being the goddess of _beauty, _for god… _gods…_ sake…

Piper got out of bed. No one was in the cabin—they probably all left for their free weekend, which had no lessons scheduled throughout the entire two days. She began to walk toward the small washroom to brush her teeth when she tripped over somebody, falling forward on her hands.

"Oh my gods, I'm sorry!" the girl cried out, helping Piper up. "So sorry!"

"No problem," said Piper, getting to her feet. She glanced at her, then back at the ground. "I hope this isn't a personal question I'm asking right now, but what were you doing on the floor?"

"Cleaning," the girl said simply, holding up a bucket full of cold water with suds and a sponge.

"I thought the harpies cleaned everything," replied Piper.

"Not inside the cabins," said the girl. "Drew makes us do all the work, seeing how she got the role of camp counsellor after Silena died."

"That's horrible," said Piper. "But she doesn't look as if she knows what a sword even is, much less hold one. Why don't you guys just tell her to do her own share of the work? Does she, like, have a torture chamber somewhere? Or a hidden pet dragon she feeds disobedient children to?"

The girl laughed. "No, nothing like that," she said, drying her wet hands on her jeans. "She's got charmspeak. She'll just force you to wear"—here she lowered her voice ominously—"the shoes of shame."

"The shoes of—what?" asked Piper. The girl pointed up at the wall where, standing on a wooden pedestal, sat a pair of matching black shoes.

Piper waited an explication on why they were so horrible. When she didn't get one, she asked, "What's so bad about them? Are they, like, enchanted or something?"

"Enchanted so that you can never take them off!" the girl wailed. "They're horrible! You see the colour—the shape of it? Whoever wears them is shamed for life!"

Piper blinked. "I really hope being related to you doesn't come back to haunt me when I'm older," she decided.

"The name's Lacy, by the way," the girl said casually, dropping her spontaneous horrified disaster tantrum. She stuck out her relatively dry hand to shake.

"Lacy. Nice to meet you." Piper thought she remembered the name. "Will mentioned you," she recalled. "Using you as an example of why not every child of Aphrodite is a mean and sassy brat."

"Oh," said Lacy dumbly. "Thanks? …I guess."

"What are you two doing?" Drew demanded, poking her head in from the doorway. "Lacy, keep scrubbing!"

Lacy froze at her voice, but Piper took this as an opportunity to make fun of Drew and replied with a soldier's salute, "Yessir, reporting for duty!"

Drew rolled her eyes and disappeared outside again. Lacy stopped swaying and faced Piper.

"Wow," she said. "You're lucky she didn't say 'Lacy _and Piper,_ keep scrubbing'. If she did, this cabin would be the sparkliest of them all." She sighed and dipped her sponge in the bucket again, crawling down to her hands and knees.

"Here, let me help," said Piper, dipping her hand into the (freezing) water and pulling out a second sponge.

"Thanks, but you don't have to," said Lacy.

"Just let me help you," said Piper. "Relax."

Lacy laughed. She dropped her sponge and laid down on the wet floor, stretching her limbs out wide for no apparent reason.

"Relax…" she repeated.

"Not like that!" Piper laughed, throwing Lacy's sponge onto her face. Lacy lifted her head and blinked twice, the sponge rolling off.

"Ha ha," she said, and picked up her fallen sponge again. Soapsuds were stuck to the back of her hair.

Even when they finished wiping up the floor they stayed in the cabin and chatted on their beds, Piper mostly just asking lots of questions that led up to conversations. Piper once asked what kids of Aphrodite usually did, and Lacy replied that they were usually mean popular kids, and for the next hour they talked about bullies at their other schools.

"I go to a school in New York," Lacy said. "But even there I can't seem to get away from Drew. She goes there too."

"Ugh," said Piper.

"You can believe it," said Lacy. "But at least there I don't have to follow her every order." She paused, thinking. "Okay,"—here she scooted closer to the edge of her bed so that she could talk in a quieter voice to Piper—"so there's this girl who goes to my school, Sadie, and she has the _cutest_ brother."

"Like, how cute?" Piper asked.

"From one to ten, he's like a twelve," Lacy said, and Piper nodded solemnly.

"Well, he doesn't go to school for some reason, which really sucks, but somehow Sadie convinced him to go to the last school dance, and—" Lacy stopped, being unable to suppress an excited grin and squeal.

"And then they and a bunch of other kids just left. We didn't even have time to talk about half of the things I was dying to ask him." Lacy stopped, a bit red. "But, anyway, who do _you_ like?"

"No one," she replied, which was the truth.

"You know you do," Lacy sang with a smile, falling sideways on her bed, then backwards.

"No, I don't," replied Piper in the same sing-songy tone.

"And that boy you're always with?" Lacy pestered.

"Friend," said Piper. "Just a friend."

"And at school? Nobody there?"

"No."

"Home?"

"No."

"Neighborhood?"

"No."

"Youth club?"

"Are you just going to keep listing random places, or are we going to move on with life?"

"Fine."

Pause.

"Church?"

Piper threw a pillow at her.

They continued talking and before they knew it, the day had already gone by. They ate a quick dinner at their cabin's table, and then Piper went to the forges alone—she had a feeling Leo would be there.

Sure enough, he was. "Watcha working on?" she asked, walking over and peering over his shoulder.

"Chime," he replied just as casually.

"How's she looking?" asked Piper, stroking the crest of the decapitated head of Chime.

"Give me an hour or two, and she'll be able to fly without a remote," replied Leo.

"Like, by herself? With her own will?" asked Piper.

"That's what 'fly without a remote' usually means," said Leo. He sharply nodded his head upwards once, and large safety goggles that had been resting somewhere on top of his curly hair fell down to his nose and over his eyes. The plastic of the right lens had been dented inwards, deforming the way Leo's eye looked. Piper laughed.

"You might want these," said Leo, handing her a pair. Both eyes were dented.

"Aw, but Leo…" Piper complained like a three-year-old. "You're only working with screws and bolts at the moment. Do we really need these?" She held up the goggles and shook them in the air.

"Yeah, you do," said Leo. "You'll see in a second."

Piper sighed and strapped them on. "I look like an idiot," she decided, looking at herself in the reflective part of a silver cabinet nearby.

"I think you're letting this Aphrodite stuff get to your head," said Leo.

"I blame the shoes of shame," she muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Leo shrugged and kept working for a minute or two. "Nearly done with the easy bits," he informed Piper.

"Okay," she said, rubbing her hands together. "Let's see what is so important I have to wear these gogg—_WHOOOOOOAAAA!"_

"Yeah," said Leo, pulling his goggles back up to his head. Piper had tumbled backwards onto the table behind them, spilling everything that had been so neatly organized on top of it onto the floor, creating a large mess. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Oh, so it's my fault," said Piper, the sharp end of a screwdriver driving into her back painfully. She held out a hand for Leo weakly. "Help?" she tried.

Leo took it and effortlessly pulled her back up. She had been saved from harm, but the table hadn't. It was split right down the middle where Piper had fallen on it, both of its front legs bent back on themselves.

"Oops," Piper said. She turned back to Leo's workstation to find Chime lying there as if nothing happened.

"How long did you say this would take?" she asked Leo.

* * *

**SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE**

**Okay, so you may have noticed the pen-name _TheColorsOfTheRainbow _in the review-answer portion of some of the chapters. She has a story called _Beautiful Me, _and it's about bullying. She asked me to mention it in my story because she really wants to bring attention to bullying, and because she wants to do something about bullies. And I agree. Bullying is an issue that needs to be stopped.**

**The story goes like this: Laura J. Williams is bullied at school. But what the bullies do not know is that Laura lost her mother to cancer when she was four, or that her father is always drunk, or even that she's never had a friend. Maybe if they knew more about her, she wouldn't be bullied so much. But they don't know, and they will do everything in their power to make Laura's life absolute hell.**

**So please. Go read the story. It really is amazing. (But it's not on FanFiction because it isn't a fan-fiction, so you can find the story at  
****_articleInfo?id2358.)_****  
**


	18. Bets and Batteries

**(Sorry this chapter took a little longer to update... and it's so short. This is sort of a filler chapter anyway.)**

**And now...**

**OHMIGODS OHMIGODS 112 REVIEWS OHMIGODS!**

**This chapter is dedicated to ****_Just another _****(guest), the hundredth reviewer! YAY! YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!**

**(And, doing the math, this is my most famous story, because although MODP has 250+ reviews, it also has 40+ chapters.)**

**I do not own HoO.**

* * *

**Piper**

It was absolute _torture, _but Leo finally finished Chime. It was well past ten, but the curfew on weekends was ten thirty so they were still safe from the harpies.

"Ready?" Leo asked Piper from behind their overturned worktable. Piper had an instant déjà vu of the Wilderness School, when they had been doing the exact same thing in the dormitory lounge.

Piper nodded. She pushed herself up on her knees, so that she could still duck under the protection of the table if necessary, but tall enough to peer over the side to have a good view of the air. Leo turned Chime on from the switch on her stomach, and they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"Is she working yet?" asked Piper. They must have been kneeling there, staring at the bird intently and trying to order it to move telepathically, for five minutes. But still it lay there motionless, doing nothing.

"Maybe I did something wrong," contemplated Leo. "Maybe it's the generator, or the wires aren't put together correctly, or—"

"Did you put the battery in?" asked Piper.

"Of course I put the battery in," Leo said impatiently. "How would I forget something as simple as putting in the battery?"

"Oh, really?" asked Piper. "Bet you five bucks that when we open the battery compartment there won't be any batteries."

Leo sighed and reached down to grab the small bird. "Okay, just be prepared to be disappoi—" He stopped when the little door opened to reveal an empty battery storage.

"Oh."

Piper held out her hand and Leo sullenly reached into his pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill. Then she reached out to another table and grabbed a small circular battery, popping it in. Leo gently closed the door again, laying Chime down on the floor again.

Nothing happened.

"Did you put the battery in properly?" asked Piper after a minute. "Or maybe—"

She stopped herself to gasp. Chime's electronic little head rose from the floor, looking around curiously. Piper wanted to scrabble away from it as much as she wanted to scoot closer and touch it. _(Her, _she chided herself.) Chime fumbled to get to her small electronic bird feet, using her silver wings to support her. She flapped them once, twice, but took no air.

"Oh. My. God," said Piper.

"It's 'gods' now," Leo reminded her nonchalantly. Piper wanted to slap him for being so clueless.

"Chime… can actually—"

"Yeah, but I don't think she'll be able to go anywhere today," Leo said, getting up to his feet and turning the table they were hiding behind back onto its four legs. "She's too new at being real. And it's almost curfew anyway. Do you want to take her to the Aphrodite cabin?"

"Me?" asked Piper, looking down at Chime, who was still trying to bat her wings. "Well, she's your bird, so you should have the right to—"

"Okay," said Leo simply.

"NO!" yelled Piper, scooping up Chime into her hands and holding her to her chest protectively. "I keep her," she stated.

"Oh-_kah-_ay," said Leo. "Just make sure she doesn't decide an electronic mutiny."

"A—_what!?" _Piper demanded.

"Kidding," said Leo. "She's too well programmed for that."

There was hardly anyone outside at this time, but luckily for Leo and Piper it wasn't past curfew yet, so they still managed to get to home base safely and without being eaten. Piper placed Chime in the new camp clothes she had bought with Lacy earlier that day and tucked her under the bed, where no one would accidentally step on her. She remembered just in time to turn the little switch off.

Just in time.

* * *

**Ha ha. **

**I have no idea what I was thinking while I wrote this.**

**And happy belated Canada Day! (YAY!)**

**Now... review! **

**REVIEW!**

_**REVIEW!**_


	19. Benches and Secrets

**HAPPY AMERICA DAY! (at least that's how I think you pronounce it)**

**Anyway, I thank you for all the wonderful reviews, and to make up for the fact that the last chapter was so frikkin' short, I have tried to make this one a bit longer.**

**ENJOY!**

**Disclaimer: People... *sob* ...I'm not Rick. Because if I was, I'd be working on the HOUSE OF HADES right now, or on the fifth book of the series instead of FREAKING FANFICTION. **

* * *

**Piper**

A few more days passed. Then those days turned into weeks, and those weeks ended up piling on top of the other, and before they knew it, Piper and Leo were celebrating their one-month anniversary of being at Camp Half-Blood.

Well, so far the 'quest' wasn't turning out so great. Nyssa and Drew fought all the time, and Piper had a feeling only two percent of their work had been actually been completed. Leo complained on how moody Nyssa was becoming, and Piper complained about Drew in general like she always had.

And Chime turned out to be pretty awesome. She had started flying a month before, and soon everyone in the Hephaestus and Aphrodite cabin knew her by name.

Piper reasoned she was getting better at this demigod stuff as well. Soon she was able to beat Leo at archery, even though he was still better than her in sword-fighting. One day, she had hit a twenty-eight out of thirty (in archery), and, sadly, the same day Leo beat her with a sword in less than twenty seconds.

"That was humiliating," commented Piper as they sat down on the side benches after the fight.

"Not for me," said Leo, grinning like crazy.

"It's fortunate for us that we're still 'newbies' and we don't take in too much attention," said Piper, taking a long drink of water.

"Not that new," said Leo. "Almost a month now."

A loud racket coming from not too far away interrupted their conversation. "Stupid Aphrodite brat," muttered Nyssa, storming past them.

"Selfish, dirty, forge-person!" Drew yelled back, shaking her fist at her like 'Curse You, Nyssa thedaughterofHephaestus!'.

"'Forge-person'," Leo repeated, laughing. "I'm sorry, but nothing can top that."

"I think we would do a lot better if we were the 'forge and dove'," commented Piper. "At least we'd get something done." She said nothing else for a moment, and then in two quick seconds she had unsheathed Katoptris and jumped up onto the bench they were sitting on with bent knees, pressing the tip of her dagger against Leo's throat.

"I win," she said tauntingly.

"I knew you'd do that," Leo said back, turning away from the blade as if it weren't even there.

"No, you didn't," argued Piper. "Don't be a sore loser and just admit that I won." She jumped down from the bench, placing her dagger on the bench next to her. "I've been perfecting that bench-jump all week," she announced proudly.

"Is that so?" asked Leo. "It can't be too hard."

"When you're wearing fifteen pounds of armour it is," she countered.

They argued a little longer on whether or not this was so. Finally, Leo tried the jump for himself and failed, knocking the bench over and throwing them both onto their backs.

"Told ya," said Piper, craning her neck so that she could see Leo.

"Congratulations," replied Leo, trying to sit up with his armour but failing. "You can jump over a bench." He struggled to get up a little more, but only succeeded in making himself look like a pathetic overturned bug. After retrieving her fallen over dagger, Piper got to her feet and extended an arm to help him up.

"I got this," he reassured, but it didn't take long for Piper to realize that he definitely did not. After several odd looks and a few minutes of squirming on the floor in vain, Leo finally took Piper's hand.

"Man, do they need to lighten up that armour," said Leo. He yawned, stretched, and checked an imaginary watch at the same time. "Well, it's time for Papa Leo to take his mid-day nap. See you at dinner."

"It's only four in the afternoon," Piper noticed. "Why are you going to bed now?"

"I will repeat," said Leo. "_Mid-day nap._ Why does _everything _have to be so complicated nowadays?"

Piper watched Leo walk back toward the cabins. She didn't follow. Instead, she went out to find Lacy.

Even though he said he would, Leo didn't show up for dinner. And when Piper asked the other Hephaestus campers, they told her that they hadn't seen Leo at their cabin, but one of the smaller kids—Harley?—said that Leo was at the forges. So after dinner, Piper headed over there.

"_So _tired, huh," she announced from the doorway. Leo hardly looked behind him. He was the only one at the forges—everyone else was getting ready for bed.

"Hey," he called.

Piper skipped between the worktables holding dangerous and complex looking machinery to the one Leo was working at. "Whatcha doin'?" she asked.

"What does it look like?" asked Leo, hardly looking up from his seat.

Piper looked down at all the wires and gears and batteries and other chips and bolts on the table. "I have absolutely no idea," she stated.

Leo sighed and pushed everything to the sides, leaning his elbows on the table and resting his head on top.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. Leo shook his head slightly, but she could tell it was a lie.

"Okay, what's up?" asked Piper again, pulling up a stool from another table and sitting down.

"You really want to know?" he asked.

"With a cherry on top," she replied.

"Are you sure you don't want something else?" asked Leo. "Like a taco or something? I could go get you a taco if you wanted one—"

"Absolutely positive," said Piper, clasping her hands out in front of her and placing them in her lap. She adopted a therapist-like voice. "Now, what's been bothering you?" she asked.

Leo grinned sheepishly, hesitated, then held up his index finger, looking at Piper as if to say _Ta-da! See, nothing special. Now go away._ Piper was about to ask what was so special about this when it lit on fire, illuminating the vast room they were sitting in.

Piper's hands flew to her face. She involuntarily threw herself backwards to get away, the only thing catching her fall being the worktable behind them. "Oh my God. Ss."

"This is why I ran away six times," Leo said with a sigh. "I grew too close to my foster family, and I couldn't repeat what happened with my mum." He paused, thinking about it. "Well, it was the reason I ran away from five of my foster homes. The fourth one was just _cruel,_ man."

"Your mum…" Piper suddenly understood. She managed to sit back up with a bit of effort. "Your mum died in a fire," she remembered him telling her, oh so long ago. "And those bullies, at the Wilderness School. One of them said that you had burned him. And Dylan, that whirlwind guy—he called you a fire user."

Leo nodded. "Exactly seven years ago, I killed my mother with this… demigod thing. None of my siblings have it. It's just me." He sighed. "I don't know if you want to be friends anymore," he said, pulling his finger away, its light disappearing. "You can call me a freak now. A mutant, a devil, a crazy Firebender… I've heard them all. It doesn't matter to me if I hear one more."

Piper just shook her head, unsure of what to say. "No," she decided. "All those people—they're wrong." Her voice turned uneasy all of a sudden. "But, uh, just for the record… not that I'm, uh, scared or anything, but, em… how potentially dangerous is this fire-magic you have?"

Leo looked up and grinned. "Very dangerous," he laughed. "In fact, if this room were to catch fire right now, it'd probably be safer to jump into the monster-infested forest than to stay here." He lit his finger up again, drawing himself closer to the walls.

"No!" Piper shrieked, then laughed when Leo didn't actually do it. "Well, I guess that since we're telling secrets now," she said, "I have something to say as well. Of course, it isn't that impressive as having fire powers—"

"Nothing is," interrupted Leo with a grin.

"—but, I thought you should still get to know anyway," continued Piper as if Leo hadn't said anything. She took in a deep breath. "Do you remember the day we met, and Coach Hedge corrected our names? Like, our _full _names?"

"Yeah," said Leo.

"And, well, he said my last name was McLean?" she continued.

"Like the movie star, yeah."

"Well, that movie star is my dad."

Leo sat up straighter. "You're not serious?" he demanded.

"Well," continued Piper with a shy grin, "the only reason I wanted a BMW in the first place was to gain attention from my dad. He's always so busy, and never has time for me. Or almost never does."

"Wow," said Leo. "You were wrong. That _is_ impressive."

"Just, please, don't treat me like I'm some princess now," she said. "Treat me how you used to treat me. I _hate _it when people do that once they know who my dad is. It's, like, _so _annoying!"

"Okay," Leo said simply. "Still, a movie star's daughter is pretty… inspiring."

"I think that was the first time I've heard you say that word," Piper noticed.

"I think that was the first time I ever said that word in my life," Leo said. "Anyway, do you think they still have tacos from dinner?"

"Of course they would, the plates are— Oh, right, you didn't have dinner," said Piper. She stood up. "Well, let's see what we can conjure up."

* * *

**GASP! Leo is a fire user! Who knew?**

**NOW... reviews!**

**-o-O-o-**

_**HaileeOfHermes0330: **_**Prophecies aren't supposed to make sense. But if you got it, good for you!**

_**Zoe Milex: **_**I'm sorry, but as a straight A student I have to correct you. YES, Canada day is the best day on Canadian history, but technically we never won 1812. In fact, the war was British vs. America, British fighting on Canadian ground because technically Canada wasn't a free country yet. But those haters who came stommpin' on our land never got it, so I guess in theory we won... (high-five!)**

_**elliefs: **_**Canada Day is like America Day for Canadians.**

_**slenderniece: **_**Doesn't everyone want Chime and cookies? (::) (::)**

_**Just another:**_** Thank you for also reviewing every chapter! You get cookies! (::) (::) (::)**

**-o-O-o-**

**Now review!**


	20. Leo's Near Slip of Secrets!

**Hello!**

**I am here to present to you folks here today a REQUEST CHAPTER! YAY!**

**It was mentioned by ****_Gabsters, _****and I thought it was too much of a good idea not to pass it up. **

**So YAY! The chapter is dedicated to him/her, so without further ado, I present to you _LEO'S NEAR SLIP OF SECRETS!_**

**(Ha ha... I came up with that name...)**

* * *

**Leo**

Leo munched on his taco happily as he made his way back to the forges. His half-siblings should be there, as they always liked to be every free second of the day. Piper had gone to bed.

Leo entered the forges to be nearly decapitated by a flying squirrel. "Whoa!" he yelled, narrowly avoiding it.

"Sorry, dude," Jake called out to him.

"No problem, man," Leo replied. The squirrel landed on a table, and Leo made a face at it. The automaton made a face back at him.

Harley went up to Leo. "Okay, so Leo, I was wondering something," he started. "So, like, there's this fun thing I'm working on, but it's really dangerous, and everyone else is busy, and I just need someone to hold down one end so that everything doesn't explode, and could you do it please please please?"

Leo was about to tell him that he was busy as well, but Harley gave him a wide-eyed innocent puppy-dog face. "Okay, champ," Leo told him as Harley led him to a table in the center of the room. "But this better be quick."

"Okay," Harley said, giving him a pair of heavy-duty gloves and goggles. "Just put these on, because this part is really heated and you don't want to get burned. So just press down on this end, because if you don't it will fly upwards taking most of us out along with it."

"This sounds dangerous," Leo noticed as he slipped on the gloves.

Harley shrugged. "I've done worse."

"And did that worse thing do what it was supposed to?"

Harley thought about it. "I decapitated two nymphs and sent the entire Demeter cabin to the infirmary," he declared.

Leo patted him on the back. "You're too young for this," he told him.

"That's what I'm told." Harley grinned.

Leo held down the end Harley wanted to be held down while the latter unscrewed a small compartment on the side of the machine and took out a blowtorch. "Okay, hold down… now!" Harley flicked the blowtorch on and set the fire close to the inside of the machine. Through the gloves, Leo could feel the machine growing warmer. The end he was supposed to contain bucked furiously, and he had to throw his entire weight down on it to keep it from throwing him off.

"Uh, Harley?" he said. "Maybe this is a bad idea."

"Nonsense!" The kid was using a blowtorch without any protective gear or mask. He laughed.

Suddenly, the bucking stopped. Harley frowned and turned the blowtorch off. "That's weird," he decided. "That isn't supposed to happen—"

Something sizzled underneath Leo, and he realized that the gloves he was wearing were literally scorching and burning to a crisp. He yanked them off and threw them away, where they landed on the floor and sunk half a foot into the ground.

"Not supposed to happen!" Harley yelled. He turned to the rest of the cabin and in a voice a small child like him was not supposed to have, he bellowed, _"DUCK!"_

The Hephaestus campers heeded the warning and stopped whatever they were doing, threw themselves to the ground, and covered their necks with their hands. There was no screaming or panic. Apparently this sort of thing happened a lot.

Well, unfortunately, this was Leo's first time. He didn't get under cover quick enough and Harley's device exploded. He felt white-hot screws and nails pummel into him, and he raised both hands to his face in effort to protect himself. A large part of machinery was rammed into him and it threw him backwards, sending him crashing into tables. A few more seconds of exploding machines and then there was silence.

Leo groaned, trying to haul the thing off him, but it was too heavy. He realized that it was burning off his clothes, but he didn't feel anything. He tugged, but the thing wouldn't budge. He wasn't afraid of being smashed, or even the heat boiling him to an unrecognizable crisp. But his half-siblings would come over to check that he was alright and would notice how he wasn't screaming in agony.

He carefully lit his hand on fire and burned the sheet of metal to a liquid before his cabin could get up. He detangled himself from it, wiping large gooey globs off his clothing. Harley jogged over.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "I'm so sorry, and—"

"I'm fine," Leo told him. "Just don't ask me to do any more favours for you anymore."

He glanced back at what remained of the sheet of metal. Safe. For now.

* * *

**Well, wasn't that fun?**

**Now review. The next chapter stops becoming filler, so the more reviews the quicker it comes!**

_**IMPORTANT NOTE!**_

**Also, I want to write a new story, but I'm still writing this one. I won't start favouring one story over another, but this WILL result in slower updates, possibly only one or two chapters per week. I have a poll on my profile, though, so you don't have to go up in my face if you want me to wait. (I'll be keeping it up for three more chapters.) Thanks!**


	21. Stakeouts and Romans

**Thank you everyone for joining me once again in this marvelous story of Piper and Leo! But let us take a break from our two favourite heroes (and pairing!) to enjoy the wonderfulness of the story from the other side... THE ROMANS.**

**This chapter may displease you because of the absence of Piper and Leo. If this bothers you, please come back to Camp Half-Blood in two chapters. Thank you.**

* * *

**Reyna**

Reyna and Jason, the praetors of New Rome, watched silently at the enemy camp. It had already been two hours, and Reyna was beginning to wonder if this stakeout was really worth it. All they had seen were harpies hustling around and heard only the snores of other kids their age.

"I think we should leave," Jason commented. Reyna began to say no, like she had automatically replied for the last hour, but this time she relented. Nothing was happening anyway.

"Fine," she said, starting to get up, when she saw something else. "Look," she whispered, sneaking down into you-can't-see-me mode again. Jason groaned.

"It's just another harpy," he said. "Now let's go. We have more important things to do."

"Shh!" Reyna scolded him. "It's not another harpy. It looks like they're two kids—teenagers maybe. A girl and a guy. Give me the binoculars so I can see it more clearly."

Jason sighed and tossed her the binoculars, then went down on his stomach beside Reyna again and leaned against his elbows so that they left marks in the dirt. "What is it?" he asked uncaringly.

"They are two teenagers, maybe even our age," Reyna told him. Jason suppressed a yawn. "They're pushing a canoe out into the water… And they're getting in!"

"You get way too excited over nothing," said Jason. Reyna wondered if he were right. But ever since Octavian had found two hidden prophecies in the Sybilline Books that he claimed weren't there before, Reyna had been acting really skittish, as if something else might change or pop out of thin air. The two new prophecies were extremely similar—the first and last couplets were the exact same. But one had 'Romans' where 'Greeks' was on the other, visa versa.

Reyna had been researching like crazy the past few days, trying to figure out what it meant. She learned that Romans had conquered the Greeks—which wasn't really that surprising, she thought—and that they had extremely similar gods. Nothing else fabulously interesting.

Could there be another camp? she had wondered. A camp for Greek demigods—a Camp Zeus?

When she told her findings to Jason, he had seemed interested. The two of them decided to search for this Camp Zeus without telling anyone else knowing—except for Octavian. They told the camp that they were going on a monster expedition (kill all the monsters you can in one week. Great exercise; the camp takes it twice a year) and began researching all the possible locations. They knew Mount Olympus for the Greeks was in New York, so they decided to head to the Big Apple first.

And it had worked. So there they were on their third night, watching the Greeks, seeing if they were a threat that must be dealt with. So far, nothing much had happened.

But instead Reyna replied to Jason, "This camp could be a potential threat. What we are doing—or what _I _am doing—is for the safety of our camp."

Something else caught Reyna's eye. "Look!" she cried, pointing. Jason sighed and took the binoculars, pressing them to his eyes. "Whoa," he said to himself, zooming in with the binoculars. "That kid's like, swirling the water around with his hand. That definitely isn't normal."

"We're all not normal," replied Reyna. "But power over water? Only a son or daughter of Neptune could do that."

"Or the other god of the seas. The Greek one," said Jason. "What was his name again?"

"Posy…"

"Problemidon…"

"Poresy…"

"...Sponge-Bob!"

"No."

"But that would be so cool!"

"Whatever," Reyna said, dismissing the sudden thought of Sponge-Bob wearing a crown and ordering Patrick and that Plankton guy around. "We've gotta tell the camp about this."

"No kidding," said Jason. "If that kid has power over water, then my lightning strikes will be rendered useless. He could form a big wave to head off in one direction and my lightning would go heed it like an obedient puppy. These guys must definitely not find out about us."

"But if we managed to find out about them, it'll be easy for them to find us as well," noticed Reyna.

"...War?" asked Jason.

"I don't know," said Reyna, watching the two kids. They seemed harmless, laughing around on their small canoe—definitely a couple. The boy was forcing the water to float above their heads in a sort of rainbow shape, arcing over their canoe. "We must have a senate meeting first. We could send another team over here for another stakeout, just to be sure if we must fight. For all we know, this could be a normal mortal magician camp."

"With harpies?" asked Jason.

"Okay," relented Reyna, "not a magician camp. But maybe another unknown legion of Romans. We must call a meeting."

"Alright," said Jason, getting off his stomach and standing up to stretch. "Let's go home." He began to march back the way they came, humming to himself. Before following him, though, Reyna looked back at the two kids in the boat. They were currently being chased back to shore by angry naiads, who apparently did not like to be woken up in the middle of the night.

"I'm sorry if we're making a mistake," she said softly before following Jason.

* * *

**I do not own HoO.**

**Anyway, please proceed to the review box below, or to my profile to vote. Whichever majority wins in two chapters will decide the fate of the updates of this story. So I would review now and vote immediately after.**

**Also, I apologize for Jason's OOC-ness. I didn't realize I was making him act like Percy until after I edited it.**

**Thank you for your co-operation.**


	22. A Meeting and A War

**Hello.**

**How ya doin'?**

**I'm doin' great, thanks.**

**(This chapter is still Roman. Come back for the next chapter at CHB.)**

* * *

**Reyna**

"You mean you saw _what?"_

"This guy, maybe seventeen, has these freakishly freaky powers over water! And then they have harpies as slaves to clean up during the night, and tons and tons of cohorts! I mean, I always thought five was a lot, but they have, like, twenty or something!" Jason explained/exclaimed. "And they have this huge forest full of monsters, and an entire ocean to use to their disposal, and a whole whack of other stuff, like a climbing wall with lava—we have to get one of those, by the way—an amphitheater... oh, and they actually use bow and arrows. But there was no town; just the camp."

"This sounds like a very dangerous group," another senate counsellor commented.

"Let us prepare for war!" cried Octavian. "I'll—"

"Consult with the gods first," finished Reyna. "You know the rules, Octavian."

"But—"

_"Octavian."_

Grumbling, Octavian said, "Fine…" He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest in displeasure, fuming to himself.

"But we must be cautious," Reyna continued. "I believe Camp Jupiter must not be held in the dark of this information. We shall tell them after the War Games next Friday."

"I believe that that is a good plan," agreed Jason.

"All in favour?" asked Reyna.

Seven hands rose.

"Then it is agreed," said Reyna. "This meeting is now closed."

**-o-O-o-**

On Friday, after the War Games, everyone gathered at the mess hall for dinner. They usually had dinner before the games, but Reyna had tweaked that rule just this one time for the very same reason she was announcing.

Halfway through supper, Reyna and Jason shared quick nods and stood up in unison. Reyna tapped her goblet with her metal spoon gently, calling for silence.

"Some of you may know that Jason and I left last week for a monster hunt," said Reyna. A few people nodded to their friends. The rest nodded to themselves, now knowing why their praetors were missing for a few days. A few immature daughters of Venus cooed loudly as if knowing that Reyna and Jason had been using the monster hunt as the cover needed for an extended vacation/date. Reyna shot them a sharp glare that made them shut up immediately.

"Well, we weren't actually on a monster hunt," explained Jason. The girls of Venus giggled amongst themselves. "You see, we had some leads on another camp in New York."

The daughters of the goddess of love pouted as if expecting news of Reyna and Jason getting married or something but being disappointed.

"Like, New York the state or New York the city?" someone from the third cohort asked.

"City," said Jason. "We went to investigate, and it was there all right."

"Now, we aren't sure if this is just an unrecorded legion that we do not know about or not," Reyna continued for Jason. No point telling them it might also be Greek. "Octavian will finish consulting the gods to see whether or not these unknowns are a threat to our camp, legion, or New Rome."

Octavian stood up from his spot at the first cohort. He had done the tricky part of the offering at the temple; now all her had to do was finish. He took a stuffed toy from his belt—a cat, Reyna saw—as well as a knife. He cleared the plates off his table and laid the cat there. He chanted something for a few seconds, and then slit his knife across the toy's throat. He picked up the two pieces, quite a bit of stuffing falling out and landing at his feet, and held them above his head, still chanting.

After a minute, he lowered his arms. "The gods have spoken!" he cried out dramatically. "And they have told me…" He paused for a theatrical effect that made Reyna roll their eyes but had everyone else sitting on the edge of their seats. "They are not from a legion or even Roman. They are _GREEKS!" _

No one spoke for ten very long seconds. It was so quiet that the sound of a pin dropping would have sounded like a nuclear missile attack.

"Are you sure, Octavian?" Reyna asked to clarify, the vow of silence being broken.

"The gods have spoken," repeated Octavian, lying down the two pieces of cat down on the table once more. He pressed his hands together as if he were in prayer. "And that is what they have said."

"All right, then," said Reyna awkwardly.

"We must prepare for war!" Octavian yelled quite loudly, shedding off his humble Mr Innocent act. "We defeated the Greeks once many millennia ago—we must do it again now! All of New Rome is at risk! We must attack before they do! We—!"

"Octavian…" warned Reyna.

"We can take 'em!" some kid in the fourth cohort shouted.

"But before concluding the decision we must have a—" Jason started.

"Senate meeting?" finished Octavian with a tinge of smugness. He pretended to be bored by faking a yawn. "Been there, done that. Now is the time for war! Even the new prophecy says so!"

"But the rules say—" started Reyna.

"Even when our race, our culture, our very Roman ways are at risk, all you can think of are the guide lines?" Octavian demanded. He smacked a fist into his other hand. "This is an issue that involves every Roman citizen, so we shall have our 'meeting' here." He turned to the rest of the camp. "All in favour of going to war with the Greeks, raise your right hand and yell _AI!"_

Nearly every right hand in the room rose with a chorus of voices yelling 'ai'. Jason and Reyna just stood there, unable to protest against that.

"Octavian, need I remind you that _we_ are the praetors of this camp, and so _we_ make the decisions?" demanded Reyna in a tone that said, _If you defy me once more you will end up like that poor cat you just killed. _

"Of course," said Octavian. "But, Reyna, need I remind _you _that your entire _raison d'etre _is to protect the legion and New Rome? Do what is best for your camp's safety?"

"And declaring war on possibly hundreds of harmless Greeks is safe?" demanded Reyna. "More than just a few people could die. And I'm saying both Greeks _and _Romans. We don't know their strengths, or strategies—heck, we hardly know if they even _are_ Greeks."

"The gods have—"

"Yeah, yeah," interrupted Jason. "The gods have spoken or whatever. But Reyna has a point. Just marching up there with weapons ready isn't a good idea."

Octavian started to say something snappy back, but caught himself, and self-composed. "Of course, you are correct," he said politely.

"We are?" Jason asked. Reyna knew better than to believe Octavian had given up that easily.

"What are you planning, Octavian?" she demanded, hands on hips.

"An infiltration!" Octavian declared with raised arms. "Spies among the campers! We'll send a couple demigods into their camp to learn their ways! After all knowledge possible is acquired, we shall attack!" He turned to the rest of the occupants in the mess hall "All in favour?" he asked Camp Jupiter's campers.

This time, every demigod hand in the building rose.

Except for two.

"Octavian, this is insane," said Reyna.

But Octavian paid her no attention. "Who wishes to be the two demigods to pretend they are Greek?"

A few brave hands rose.

"We aren't agreeing to this," said Jason, crossing his arms.

"Four, then," said Octavian, ignoring him. "One from each cohort! I mean, five, then. I almost forgot to include the last one!" He laughed along with the rest of the cohorts with the exception of the fifth. "And past the end of the second month, we shall attack! Those Greeks won't know what hit 'em!"

The campers roared in approval.

**-o-O-o-**

_The Romans are clueless,  
__Simple-minded and carefree.  
__But their next 'great' strategy  
__Will stir up trouble indeed.__  
_

* * *

**Oh, thy prophecy! What does it mean? I don't know! Actually, I do know, but I'm not telling you!**

***cue the evil laughter!***

**MUAHAHAHAHA!**

**(Disclaimer: I don't own HoO.)**

**Now go to the review box or to my poll!**


	23. 1st Camper

**Okay, guys, poll is now closed, and it is decided that...**

**I won't be publishing it until after this story!**

**Five votes for no (wait a while), but only two for yes (do it now). It don't matter. Now I have time for extra planification. So in its place I'm doing a short oneshot on Artemis Fowl that took me an hour to write last night.**

**Now, about this chapter...**

**Heh heh... You guys are probably going to hate me... but the next five chapters are all going to be ****_*wince* _****Romans. But at CHB. And if you're wondering why on earth I'd waste my time on that... I have a good reason that won't emerge until later.**

**Anyway, here's the first camper... Marcy!**

* * *

**Marcy**

Marcy was a direct descendant of the goddess Ceres. She had chlorokinesis, which is power over plants for those of you who don't know. She was in the first cohort because a) her mother was one of the six original gods, the sons and daughters of Cronus, b) she had powers over plants that no one wanted to mess with, and c) her father was a second generation demigod himself—Marcy's grandfather was the son of some minor god she forgot.

She was also a tough camper. You expected children of Ceres to be all delicate and careful and pretty like a flower, and appearance-wise Marcy was exactly that. Blond hair, gentle skin, and a nice, big and perfect smile. Cute and seemingly harmless. But deep down inside of her, she was a true warrior. Since age four.

That was why that made her one of the best infiltration agents.

**-o-O-o-**

"Hey, a newbie!" some kid standing at the top of a tree with binoculars yelled. Marcy shouldered her backpack, trying to look awed but a little frightened. (Being fourteen helped pull off the look.)

_I can't believe I won't be seeing Camp Jupiter for two entire months,_ she couldn't help but think as she trudged up the hill toward her new temporary home. _That's, like, an entire summer!_ But she had known those were one of the downsides of this mission when she had signed up for it. But this camp would be similar anyway—right?

The kid who had been standing at the tree shimmied down the trunk and ran over to greet Marcy. "Hey!" he called.

"Uh… My dad told me to come here," Marcy said, putting on her frightened-girl act again. "I don't know why though, but he said I'd be safer over here than at home."

"So, you don't know yet, do you?" said the boy. He was maybe sixteen, curly brown hair, mischief grin. He wore heavy armour and had a sword at his side. He seemed like an easy opponent to take on.

"Know what?" asked Marcy.

The boy wrapped an arm around Marcy's shoulders and led her back up the hill. "You'll see," he said. "The name's Connor, by the way."

"Connor," repeated Marcy. When he wasn't looking, she rolled her eyes. _I'm not even there yet and guys are already hitting on me,_ she thought.

This was going to be two long months.

* * *

**Since these chapters are going to be just as short as this I'm going to try to update every day for five days. But no promises.**

**Now review! I did all the interesting and important bits at the first AN, so if you skipped past that (you know you did) please go up again, because I listed the results of the contest/poll. Also the explanation on why I'm focusing on Romans right now.**


	24. 2nd Camper

**Hello!**

**Disclaimer (and I forgot to do this the last chapter so this counts for both): I am not Rick Riordan. And thus I do not own CHB, but technically I own Marcy and this next camper as they are OCs. :D**

* * *

**Lucas**

Lucas was a kid from the second cohort. He wasn't born directly from a god, but both his mother and his grandfather were. His grandfather was the son of Discordia, and his mother was the daughter of Mercury. Marcy had already informed Camp Jupiter that everyone was placed into cabins according to their godly parent, so he should have known what to expect.

_So no second or third generations. Huh, _thought Lucas. He would have to choose; Discordia or Mercury. Lucas chose Mercury just because it was a more common god.

When Lucas arrived at camp, he quickly learned that Mercury was the god Hermes in Greek.

He met Marcy at the campfire that evening, where she was talking to another girl.

"She's Katie," Marcy explained when the girl left. "Another daughter of Ceres. Or Demeter. Or whatever. Now, listen." She lowered her voice and spoke in a hushed whisper. "People here are always talking about how demigods get claimed at thirteen. Since you already know your godly parent, you won't be claimed. So when they ask, say your parent is Hermes because your mom told you, or because you were claimed before coming to camp. It'll make your life a whole _heck_ lot easier."

"Cool," Lucas whispered back.

"A few more quick tips; don't give anything to those two guys," Marcy added, pointing to two curly-haired brothers who were in the process of pick-pocketing some Athena kid. "They're in your cabin. They'll steal all you have. Next is to not stay out past curfew. Harpies will eat you. Third of all—"

"Greetings, everyone!" yelled a centaur up at the front.

"AAAHH!" yelled Lucas, jumping up on to his feet and sliding out his sword in one swift motion, prepared to fight the monster to the death.

"...That," finished Marcy. "Centaurs are apparently welcome in this camp. That's Chiron, the head of this place."

"So… not bad?" Lucas asked.

"Not bad," confirmed Marcy.

"Is there anything else about this place I should know?" Lucas asked as he sat back down properly, putting his sword away.

"Yeah. Those two-curly haired guys I mentioned before? They're trying to pick-pocket you."

* * *

**Ha ha... Stolls.**

**Anyway, there's this new story I'm starting, but it's not a regular update thing like this one. It's more ****_I update whenever I have time or want to _****kind of thing, so it won't interrupt this story. It's called ****_The Lost Moments of HoO, _****and that's basically what it is. The lost moments of HoO.**

**Also, since this chapter was so short, I'll answer some reviews.**

**-o-O-o-**

_**CimFan:**_** Thank you! For a twelve-year-old, I try. And maybe I'll sneak in Percy and Annabeth in somewhere, though there are no promises.**

_**CrazyChick:**_** These next chapters are going to be CRAZY short so that's why I'm updating one a day for five days. Also, I agree with the idea that Jason would act a little different without his friends.**

_**Gabsters:**_** I agree that the Romans are okay. And now that you mention it, Connor probably _could _fight her and not decapitate himself.**

_**TheColorsOfTheRainbow: **_**That's great about your story! You actually inspired me to write my own version of a bullying story but also a fanfiction. (The one I wanted to start posting but was voted off to wait.)**

_**Guest: **_**:D**

_**BookFreak: **_**I leave you off with a cliffhanger because I am evil. Nico knows about the Romans but doesn't know they are attacking and thus is not freaking out. Hazel exists. And I make you wait _because _I am a good author, and a nice cliffhanger will make people beg****ging for more!**

_**Daizels:**_** As long as you're reviewing now! :P Also, MAYBE there MAY be a liper scene at the end, I don't know, and even if I did I wouldn't tell...**

_**EpicMusic: **_**Wow... you actually got most of the prophecy right.**

_**elliefs: **_**I know... that's why I made Poseidon Spongebob! *smiles, and home is suddenly flooded with random seawater***

**-o-O-o-**

**Anyway, please review and whatnot. It's appreciated.**


	25. 3rd Camper

**Yo. Wats up?**

**Here is the third camper. Enjoy it. (You better, punk!)**

**(You can tell I'm going for the gangster-greeting today. I mean no real offence.)**

* * *

**Thomas**

Thomas was a third generation descendant from Mars. That put him in the third cohort. He always thought of the cohorts in colours; first was gold, second was red, the fourth was green and fifth was purple. The third one—his—was blue. Thomas's favourite colour was blue. Or red, the colour of blood, but that was the second cohort. He didn't live in the second cohort.

Speaking of cohorts…

There were so many of them in this place! In fact, several of them only had one kid residing inside, some even completely empty. Those separated kids who were one of a kind must feel lonely all the time.

Well, he certainly wasn't—Thomas had an entire cabin full of siblings. When he entered the first day, it was pure chaos. Kids beating up other kids, sword fighting on beds lying diagonally against the side of the building, and weapons hanging against the wall like plaques but without the glass case. If that fell on someone while they slept…

For the first few seconds, no one noticed him. Then some guy yelled out, "Hey, newbie!"

Everyone fell silent and stopped what they were doing. One girl separated herself from the group and walked up to Thomas, standing right in his face. She was probably one of the oldest there at twenty-one, perhaps less. She was the biggest, toughest, and most intimidating woman Thomas had ever seen. Well, after his mother. (Now, _that_ was a lady you didn't want to mess with.)

"What's your name?" she eventually asked after an inspection. She clearly approved the buzz-cut and muscles.

"Thomas," he replied simply.

"Well then, Tommy, welcome to your new home," said the woman. "First rule; don't mess with me. Second rule; don't mess with any of us. Don't talk, don't acknowledge, and don't even _look_ at us until you've proved your worth. Understood?"

Instead of replying with a jeering remark, Thomas walked over to one of the swords that rested tilted against the wall and grabbed it by the handle. He held it up, dropping his bags on the floor near the door.

Everyone who had crowded around to watch took a respectful step back. No one challenged Clarrise and got away without a few missing limbs.

But instead, the girl just laughed. "This kid's got some nerve," she decided. "Stupid, fatal nerve, but nerve nonetheless." She grabbed her own random sword from the racks. "Let's see what you got, punk," she said, advancing with her sword held out in front of her.

Thomas suddenly realized what he was about to do. Everyone was afraid of this girl. He was probably about to pay for messing with her. Maybe if she liked him as much as she said she did she wouldn't be tempted to kill him. Should he call quits?

_Snap out of it!_ he scolded himself. _You're Roman. Romans never back out of a fight._

With that final thought, Thomas charged.

* * *

**And that is why we now only have four Roman campers, as Thomas was beaten to death by Clarrise. *smiley-face***

**-o-O-o-**

_**BookFreak:**_** Dang it, you're right. Give me a moment to think about this... ...hmm... How about Nico is on some underworld trip so he doesn't know what's going on in either camp! Eh? Eh? (Give me another day or two, I'll figure something out.)**

**-o-O-o-**

**Review, you guys! We're nearing two hundred! If we get two hundred, I'll dedicate a chapter to the two hundredth reviewer, and MAYBE I MAY take another request chapter. :)**


	26. 4th Camper and a Little Bit More

**Most people were wondering if Thomas died or not in the reviews. Fortunately for his life, he managed to escape with nine-and-a-half fingers. (Don't ask.)**

**Well, it suddenly occurred to me that I could add a lot more to these campers than just their arrival to CHB. Unfortunately, it occurred to me on the fourth one. ****So this chapter is longer because I added a scene with Marcy in it. (YAY!)**

**Disclaimer: I D-O N-O-T O-W-N T-H-I-S. (Wow, you can barely read what I said.)**

* * *

**Christine**

Christine's godly parent was a minor god—Trivia. For this reason she was put in the fourth cohort, which was the second least honourable. But she didn't mind. She had all her friends there, and, besides, there was always the _Fifth_ Cohort. (Even though that Jason guy was turning that place pretty popular.)

But honestly, Christine didn't want to be here. She missed her Roman camp. All these Greeks… No wonder Octavian was in a rush to get rid of them. Centaurs? Fauns that actually did useful things? Only direct descendants from gods? What was this place?

She was chosen because of her skills of spying. She could sneak around a place, listen in on a conversation, then simply leave, her victims remaining completely oblivious of what she had just done. This made her perfect for snooping around the enemy territory.

But Christine had decided that on her first day she wouldn't be eavesdropping, but exploring. At least she'd get something out of this trip—new sword-playing techniques, new experiences, new whatever. And it wasn't like she was going to be gone forever. She was only there for four weeks. Poor Marcy had been staying here for about two months now.

Christine headed for the beach. They didn't have one of those at Camp Jupiter. The motto over there was no fun, just work. This place was different. Some fun. Mostly work. Christine had to respect that.

There were only two other kids at the beach. It was almost curfew, so there wouldn't be many demigods still out anyway. As Christine walked by, she heard one of them say, "Don't you find it a little odd that there have been four new kids in eight weeks?"

Christine remained completely poker-faced and kept walking. If she stopped or hesitated she would look suspicious. Instead, after a few paces down, she turned right and kept walking. After she left audio range, she turned back toward the camp, then doubled back from behind, staying as quiet as possible, which for her was virtually soundless.

She sat down silently on the sand a few meters behind them. Just close enough to hear, but if they look back for whatever the reason, she wouldn't seem like an eavesdropper or random slenderman.

"A little," she heard the other agree.

"Could it be a coincidence?" asked the first one.

"Possibly," said the other. "Or the gods are just _really_ busy nowadays."

They laughed at the joke.

_So they don't know, _thought Christine. _But they are suspicious. And if they could make an inference, so could the rest of camp. We must be cautious._

Quietly, she stood up and raced across the sandy beach and back to camp.

Silently, of course.

* * *

**Marcy**

_Sword-fighting... my favourite part of the day._

There was that Percy Jackson guy again, teaching how to use the blade. Marcy already knew, but she pretended that she didn't for her character's sake, fumbling and getting beaten by some of her half-siblings two-thirds of the time.

She was sharing the fighting-arena with the Venus and Vulcan cohorts. With the exception of one or two, the Venus folks stood back and gossiped about random things while the Vulcan guys swung contraptions that would explode or shoot out fire at each other. It looked dangerous, so of course Marcy envied them.

"Make up groups and start dueling!" that Percy guy instructed. "Losers sit out, winners move on to fight someone else! Final competitor duels me!"

She noticed some Vulcan guy staring at her. _Oh no, _she thought as he walked up to her.

"Nice day out, isn't it?" he asked.

"Who are you?" Marcy asked, wondering if she should throw his dead body in the lake or stash it underground.

The boy grinned. "The name's Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus and Lord of Supreme Awesomeness," he introduced, holding up his sword. "And you're going down."

Marcy sighed. "Let's get this over with," she muttered, raising her sword.

She struck, but Leo parried it and tried to counter it with one of his own. Marcy could tell he wasn't as good as he said, though. She wondered what his choice of weapon was.

Probably a three-pound hammer, she thought with a small chortle.

Swipe, swipe, stab, and she had defeated him.

"...Nice," said Leo as he tried to get up with his heavy armour weighing him down. "You know, you're actually really good. You want to, I don't know, meet up somewhere sometime? I build stuff—"

"Thanks, but no thanks," Marcy told him, leaning sideways on her sword.

Leo finally managed to get to his feet. "You didn't let me finish," he said. "I build awesome stuff, like I have a pet automaton named _Chime—really_ cute. Girls love cute stuff. At least, I think they do..."

Suddenly, another girl appeared at Leo's side. "Leo!" she hissed. "What are you doing?"

"Just talking to..." Leo stopped, realizing he didn't know Marcy's name. "This person, over here," he replied awkwardly instead.

Piper smiled apologetically at Marcy. "Please excuse my friend," she told her. "Leo, we're leaving."

"What was that about?" Leo demanded once their backs were turned to Marcy and they were walking away. "I was just about to get her to go on a date with me!"

"She looked as if she were calculating the best way to kill you," Piper countered, which was funny, because it had been exactly what Marcy had been planning.

* * *

**Anyway, the fifth camper will be up for tomorrow unless something happens to me and I die beforehand because of a crazy Rick because I forgot to put the disclaimer at the top.**

**...dot dot dot...**

**Psych! I did put the disclaimer at the top. I just wanted to see if you would remember.**

**Ha ha... I'm hilarious...**

**-o-O-o-**

_**elliefs:**_** Thank you for correcting my mistake in the last chapter! I will go correct that now in your honour.**

**-o-O-o-**

**REVIEW! This story has officially over ten thousand views! Applause and cookies for you guys! (::) (::) (::)**

**PS: Thank you for _guest, _who suggested the whole 'Leo flirting with Marcy thing and Piper dragging him off' thing.**


	27. 5th Camper

**I am back! Have you enjoyed your stream of good luck? :)**

**Anyway, I'm really upset right now and I can only take pleasure in announcing OHMIGODS 195 REVIEWS THAT'S AMAZING! (I'm upset because I had a dream that I was a demigod and I went to a bookstore and found a special edition of The Lightning Thief that only had ten copies ever made and I bought it but it disintegrated before I had a chance to read it... [that always happens in dreams, doesn't it?] Also, in the same store, was the first three hundred pages of the House of Hades... never got to read that either.)**

**Disclaimer: Never did I own, and nor do I now.**

* * *

**Hazel**

Hazel was a newbie, both at this camp and back at California. She had been chosen because she was the least likely person anyone would suspect to be a spy. Or maybe it was also because nobody else in her cohort had volunteered.

She arrived at camp with her bag packed and ready. She marched up the hill and back down the other side, passing by a tall pine tree. She stopped at the bottom of the hill, trying to remember her cover story.

"Another one?" someone asked, noticing her and jogging over. Hazel desperately tried to recall why she was there.

"Why you here?" the guy asked.

"Uh…" was all she came up with.

"So, how old are you exactly?" asked the guy. A few of his friends walked over.

"Thirteen," Hazel told him, gripping the straps of her backpack so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"Claiming age," added one of them.

"And dateable age," added another, pushing past his buddies to be next to Hazel. He wrapped an arm around Hazel. "So… you available?"

"Yes," she admitted, pushing his arm away. "But uninterested."

"Ohhh… snap," said another guy, wringing his hand as if the rejection physically hurt.

"So, where're you coming from?" asked the first guy.

"California," replied Hazel.

One of the guys whistled. "Well, that's a long walk," he said.

"I flew," said Hazel.

"With your parent?"

"No. My mom's dead." Hazel figured there was no point lying about that part.

"Oooh," said another. "Hit a sore spot."

"It's fine," said Hazel. "She died a long time ago."

_Seventy years ago, perhaps?_ she wished she could add, but that would only bring up more questions.

And questions were the last thing she needed.

**-o-O-o-**

Two weeks later instead of going to the campfire with the rest of camp, the five Romans headed off toward the armoury where no nature spirits or demigods could hear them Iris Message California. They found Reyna and Jason and the rest of the senate folks sitting in their seats around a table.

"Hello," said Octavian. "How are the Greeks?"

"Crazy!" Christine exclaimed almost immediately. "They have, like, centaurs and stuff!"

"Never mind her," said Lucas, brushing her aside and stepping to the front. "But this is what we've found out about the camp and classified as important; their fighting technique is slashing, not stabbing, so tell the campers to take notice of that. And their weak point"—here his eyes narrowed in determination—"is probably water. They have a dragon at the hill, so there is a very small chance of getting past that. I suggest we sail to the island, then travel through the woods—"

"Beware of monsters," Marcy added.

"—and arrive at the camp. If we arrive by dark, when everyone is asleep, travel by morning and attack by evening, we'll have the camp under our control by sunset. We easily outnumber them by a hundred campers."

"I also have a concern," Christine added. "Several Greeks over here are suspicious of us; oblivious, but suspicious nonetheless. I believe it would be a worthwhile precaution for us to stay here until the attack." Then she realized her mistake. "Oh! Well, I mean, _if_ there is an attack, 'cause I don't know yet, and, uh, yeah…" She winced and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Excellent," said Octavian, his fingers tapping each other in a sinister way. "And there _will_ be an attack, Katy."

"Christine," Christine corrected with a tad of irritation, as if he misnamed her often.

"And who told you that, Octavian?" Reyna demanded, getting to her feet. "We have not yet decreed anything."

"But I am _sure_ you remember our little vote in the past weeks," said Octavian. "You know, the one where the praetors of Rome _lost." _

Reyna tried thinking up a response to this, couldn't, then returned to her seat fuming.

"But when will this attack be?" asked Hazel, speaking up for the first time.

Octavian regarded her with disgust as if she were too low of a class for him to speak to. "Hopefully, in seven days," he replied to the other four.

"One week," clarified Marcy, crossing her arms in thought. "I could stay here for one more week."

"But what do you suppose we'd do with this place?" asked Hazel.

"Burn it to the ground," replied Octavian. "Kill anyone who puts up a fight. Make the survivors convert to the Roman ways and board them onto ships and planes back to Camp Jupiter. They'll all be placed in the sixth cohort, which is currently being blueprinted. Those who refuse will be either killed or taken prisoner. Although when we're done with the prisoners, they'll prefer being dead. I can guarantee it."

"Well, that's sinister," Christine muttered to Hazel.

Octavian paused.

"The advantages of this attack is that the Romans gain more warriors and dispose of a potential threat," he continued. "Disadvantages of attack are nonexistent, unless you consider four days of plotting and attacking worthwhile."

"Maybe we shouldn't do this," said Hazel nervously, as if she'd had the thought a long time ago and was now speaking it for the first time. "I mean, the weeks I've been here has been pretty peaceful."

"Speak for yourself," said Thomas, crossing his arms. "My 'siblings' have tried to kill me more times than I can count. I lost half my finger!" He showed her the index finger on his left hand, which was now no longer more than an inch tall. "I'll never be able to fight properly again!"

"You're in the Ares cabin. They had freaking land mines set up," Hazel retorted. Remembering the other Romans, she translated—

"Mars."

"Ah," said Octavian, who was pretending to be interested but not really.

"Octavian, you just can't do this," said Jason.

"_I'm _not," he said. _"The camp _is."

There was a brief pause.

"Well, I think this concludes our meeting," he added to the group of five. "See you in one week, my spies," he said.

Marcy waved her hand through the picture, and the live video of their home dissolved into mist.

Little did they know that Octavian's little spies had spies of their own.

* * *

**I'm laughing so hard imagining you people freaking out.**

**Hazel is the fifth camper! You guys should have seen this coming. I was reading the reviews and you guys said, "Oh, love the three OCs cant wait for the other two', and I just laughed softly and thought, ****_Oh, there only are four OCs._**

**And what does that mean, "Octavian's little spies had spies of their own"? Guess you have to wait for the next chapter to find out!**

**-o-O-o-**

_**BookFreak:**_** I got it! Yes, I am so smart! But you're just going to have to wait to see what happens...**

**-o-O-o-**

**Anyway, please review because the fifth reviewer after this chapter is the two hundredth.**


	28. Realizations and Thoughts

**Hello, my humble people! I am trying to be as formal as possible because I know that in about five seconds I will have an extreme breakdown—**

**OHMIGODS 208 REVIEWS OHMIGODS OHMIGODS I LOVE YOU GUYS!**

**(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (now multiply that by a million) Everyone who reviewed gets cookies! Because everyone who reviewed got us one step closer to 200 reviews!**

**This chapter is dedicated to ****_Gabsters, _****the two hundredth reviewer. Applause!**

* * *

**Piper**

Piper and Leo hid in the corner of the armoury, hidden by shadows. It took all her might not to scream. An attack? On her camp!? She had to tell the others—_they _had to tell the others. She snuck a sideways glance at Leo crouching on his feet beside her, and it was apparent that he was taking this new information just as heavily as Piper was. She guessed it was harder on him than it was on her because of the fact that this was his first real home since his mom had died.

She remained silent, though, even if every molecule in her body wanted to freak out. Piper felt as though she needed to yell _something_, but somehow resisted against the urge. Panic bubbled inside of her, threatening to break through. It had already been a cold day, but now it seemed even colder. Her hands shook, and she had an itch on the side of her face. She didn't dare reach up to scratch it in fear of making a sound and giving them away.

She and Leo had been practising their swordplay until the campfire. It had been real intense (Piper had finally beat him), but fun. They joked and took their time with putting away the armour. They were just tucking the last of their breastplates in the back corner of the room when the group of five entered the armoury. Piper was about to walk by them on her way out, but Leo pointed out that they were the mysterious five that had arrived all in ten weeks of each other in a rushed whisper. He joked that they might've been aliens with intentions to blow up the camp, and that they had to proceed with extreme caution.

The thought of it now made her want to laugh.

Without thinking, Piper slipped her hand into Leo's in fear, for comfort, and just to make sure she wasn't alone. She had a short déjà vu to that day at the Wilderness School, where the bullies were beating up that younger kid while she and Leo hid from them. But this was much more serious and terrifying. And what didn't help matters was the fact that they were hiding in a place where there were enough weapons to satisfy a dictator. Leo and Piper were good fighters, but it was obvious that these people were better, even if two of them were younger than them.

Fortunately, the people in the Iris Message—Romans, they called themselves—were facing away from them, so they couldn't possibly spot Leo and Piper by accident. The five 'Greeks' would see them if they turned their heads the right way, but they were too occupied with their video that they wouldn't notice them if they kept still and quiet.

The words that jerk in the IM had said kept ringing in Piper's head. _Kill anyone who puts up a fight. Make the survivors convert to the Roman ways and board them on planes and ships back to Camp Jupiter. Those who refuse will be either killed or taken prisoner. When we're done with them, they'll prefer being dead. I can guarantee it._

The five began to leave the armoury. Piper took in a shaky breath when she thought they were gone. But apparently they weren't.

"Did you hear that?" asked one of them—Thomas.

"Hear what?" Christine asked, looking around.

"Something," he said.

"Probably the Greeks at their stupid campfire," said Marcy, crossing her arms. "Pointless, if you ask me."

"No, it came from in here," said Thomas, pointing at the armoury. Piper nearly had a coronary. He sent the lowest ranked person to go check it out—Hazel.

Piper squeezed her eyes shut. They would be discovered. She felt Leo tighten his grip on her hand. "We're not here," she moaned quietly to herself, as if by saying those words repeatedly they would come true. "We're not here, we're not here, we're not here…"

Hazel searched the room for a few seconds, the other Romans joking around between themselves at the front. She pulled back armour and swords, searching for anything that might've caught Thomas's attention.

And then Hazel froze right in front of Piper and Leo. They were two feet apart. She turned and pulled a large shield out of the way, revealing them. Piper froze in terror.

For a second, none of them moved.

"No one here!" she yelled out to the others. She seemed dazed, as if she had just been put in a trance.

"Are you sure?" asked Thomas.

Hazel blinked and stared back at Piper and Leo. Something inside Piper whispered urgently, _We're not here! We're not here, Piper, say that we're not here! Say it! SSAAAAYYY EEEETTTTT!_

"We're not here," repeated Piper out loud, managing to control her voice so that it wouldn't croak.

"No one," Hazel reassured the Romans.

"Must've been your mind," Marcy told Thomas teasingly, elbowing him.

"Whatever," he said. "Let's go." The four of them walked out of the armoury, Hazel tailing behind, looking slightly puzzled as if she had no idea what she was doing there.

For two entire minutes, neither Leo nor Piper spoke or moved, only listening to the drifting voices of the Romans walking away.

Then Piper broke down into tears, digging her face into Leo's sleeve. "I was so scared!" she sobbed. "For us, for the camp… Oh no, the camp…" She lifted her head, trying to wipe away her tears with her hands, creating even more of a mess on her face. "We have to tell them!"

"Not," said Leo. "If we tell camp, no one will believe what we have to say. And the Romans will end up killing us."

Piper wiped away a few tears away on the back of her hand. "I can't believe we never realized I had charmspeak for all these months," she said, her voice sounding calmer than before but still quavering slightly.

"Yeah… Pretty neat, huh?" said Leo. Piper tried a smile but failed miserably.

"Chillax," Piper tried to joke.

"Perfect," said Leo. "Now, wipe away those tears and let's go to the forges."

"Why?" Piper asked.

Instead of replying, Leo closed his eyes and seemed to rack his memory for something. Finally, he opened them and said—

_"Now there is only one possible way  
__To save the future's fate,  
__The forge and the dove must work together to  
__Change their persuasive rate."__  
_

Piper said nothing for a moment, then asked, "You really think _we're_ the forge and dove?" she asked.

"Remember?" asked Leo. "'We'd do a lot better than Nyssa and Drew'?"

Piper nodded.

"It makes sense now," he said. "You have charmspeak, and I have mondo-coolio fire powers, and BAM! All of a sudden we overhear a plot to take over camp. Now, _I_ have to build something to change the persuasive rate of your charmspeak, or the future's fate is doomed, or something similar to that."

"Yeah…" said Piper shakily. "But, Leo, can we wait here another minute, just to make sure they're gone?"

"I have a better idea," Leo said, getting to his feet. "I'll go check."

Piper wanted to order him to stay where he was, but decided that if he thought it was safe then it was safe. She nodded once. "You do that," she said. "And bring a sword with you, just in case!"

"Will do, my fair and beautiful Beauty Queen," Leo joked, bowing mockingly.

Piper sat there still, watching him leave. Sitting in silence by herself made her feel as if she had no worries—no conspiracy to destroy all Greek demigods, no demigods _at all,_ no deadline, no monsters, no gods, no camp, no Greeks, no Romans, and sometimes even no Leo.

Wait. What was she saying? Leo was a great friend!

Actually…

Because to tell the total and entire truth, it was so infuriating and humiliating when other campers teased them for being in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship when they weren't and Leo would go along with it and add that their honeymoon was the following week. His annoying humour sometimes got a little too annoying, and his _oh, poor me _act for his dead mom sometimes got excessive.

Alright, those were _very_ cruel things to say. Piper knew she wouldn't be able to live through this new madness if it weren't for him. She wanted to apologize, but by doing so she'd reveal her thoughts. No. By allowing these things enter her consciousness she felt as if though she had spoken them out loud, lightening the burden on her shoulders. She felt much better now.

That was when Leo spoke up. "I think they're gone," he called out to her.

Piper stood up and stretched her legs, running her cold fingers through her damp brown hair.

"Alright, then, Leo. Time to save camp."

* * *

**It surprised me how many people thought that the 'spies' were other secret infiltration Romans Octavian sent in secret.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

**Anyway, as we reached 200 reviews (YAY!) I have decided to take another request chapter. Anyone is eligible, and I will try to sneak in the best one in somewhere...**

**REVIEW!**


	29. Interpretations and Kronos

**_Me: _Not going to post this chapter today. I just won't. My readers need to learn to be patient with updates. Not everyone is going to be as updating-awesome as I am, and they need to learn that in the real world, life isn't fair. So I am not going to****—  
_Mom:_ Come on and do errands with me for the entire day! It'll be fun!  
_Me: _*glances at computer* NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO, MOM! *sits down and starts typing to look busy*  
**

******And that's how this chapter was created.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not going to do it. I won't. I seriously—*gets hit by lightning by Almighty Overlord/Greek God of Cliffhangers, a.k.a. Rick Riordan***

* * *

**Leo**

The pair marched back to the forges. Leo explained that they would have total and complete concentration there, seeing that everyone was still at the campfire, as well as all of the supplies they might need later on.

"Where do we start?" asked Piper, sitting down and rubbing her hands together eagerly. "Maybe we could use a giant bullhorn, or—"

"Patience, Piper," said Leo. "You can't build any machine without a blueprint first. We need to get the facts." He marched up to a cabinet and pulled out three sheets of regular paper and a pencil. Always a pencil, he thought. Never pen. Pen ink doesn't erase, though pencil lead does. He went back to the worktable where Piper was sitting at and wrote _Prophecy _on the top of a page.

"We'll start with the prophecy," he explained. He turned toward his partner. "Do you remember it all?"

"Something about the past not being told correctly," she started, trying to remember. "And damaged time."

Leo scribbled that down.

"I remember the next part," he said, jotting down a few more lines underneath. "The Lost Heroes not being found yet, and so basically nothing has happened."

"Then it goes into a talk about the Romans, who are missing someone we should have changed," continued Piper.

While writing this, Leo voiced—

"And so the Goddess of Marriage—which is Hera, of course—was reluctant, so that never took place, which somehow resulted in the camps fighting each other instead of the _real_ enemy."

"Then it goes into some talk about saving the fate of the future…" started Piper.

"And this is where we come in—the forge and the dove," finished Leo. "We've gotta change the persuasive rate somehow."

"And then it finishes with saying that even goddesses can make mistakes," finished Piper.

"Deadly ones as well," commented Leo. He stopped scribbling of what was an almost-perfect prophecy.

"Close enough," decided Piper, reading it through.

"Now we've gotta infer it," said Leo. He pulled out a second sheet of paper and wrote _Interpretation _on the top.

"When the past is not correct, and we're living in damaged time…" wondered Piper out loud.

"The Lost Heroes have not been discovered, so their adventures were never rhymed," finished Leo.

"That first part," said Piper, snapping her fingers in thought. "That's just sort of an opening. Summarizing what really happened in a couplet. Something happened in the past, so the time we live in isn't the correct one. Something happened…"

"My guess, something happened and the outcome was the opposite of what the person really wanted, so they did something in time to change it," said Leo. He stopped. "Man, this is really starting to sound like a bad sci-fi film."

"Complain later," said Piper. "The Lost Heroes… What could that mean?"

"Well, if you look at the following line, it says that these 'heroes' journeys have never been rhymed. That's just proof that I was correct. Their journeys not rhymed means that there was an original prophecy**—**perhaps a whole bunch of them**—**but something happened in the past to these lost people, so the prophecy was never fulfilled, thus never existing, seeing that prophecies are always right."

"Wow, Leo, you're good at this," said Piper. "But it's my turn now. The Romans missing their role model, the person we Greeks should have exchange**—**those two swapped people must be the Lost Heroes!"

"Man, we are on a roll!" Leo exclaimed, holding his palm out to Piper. "High-five!"

Piper slapped his hand.

"Alright, next lines," said Leo, returning to the task at hand.

"What happens now is just repeating itself; Hera was reluctant, so that didn't happen." Piper stopped to gasp. _"That _must have been what was changed! Hera-freaking-Hera didn't do some sort of switch, and thus the result was that the camps turned against each other!" she exclaimed eagerly. She took the paper and pencil from Leo and scribbled that down in a corner.

"One possible way to save the world, blah blah blah," said Leo. "Forge and dove to change persuasive rate."

"But how on earth will we do that?" asked Piper. "Assuming that the 'persuasive rate' here is somehow convincing the Romans to stop their attack and the Greeks from their counterattack."

"Worry about that later," her partner replied. "Last verse, come on, we can do this."

"High stakes, goddess makes mistakes," said Piper, setting the page and pencil aside. "Also unnecessary info. But there is one thing I don't understand."

"And what would that be?" asked Leo.

_"How _they would have gone back," said Piper. "It's not like the god/goddess of time would happily follow this bad guy's orders." She paused. "Would they?"

"Maybe they were forced," said Leo. "But it is best to research up on that anyway." He stood up heroically and pointed his finger upward. "To the Athena cabin!"

[insert heroic music here]

After a short walk, the two of them were sitting on the floor of the cabin, surrounded by books—most of them being god/goddess encyclopedias.

"There's something I should know about all of this," said Piper, setting a book aside and leaning forward to grab another one. "It's as if though it's an itch I can feel but can't scratch because I don't know where it is yet."

"God of time, god of time, god of time…" murmured Leo, tracing his finger down the table of contents of a textbook, searching for the title. "Not here," he announced with a short sigh. He grabbed the book Piper had just abandoned.

"Not in there," she warned. Leo redirected his hand and chose a different book.

"So you've got a theeling," Leo clarified in a matter-of-fact tone, opening it.

"A— what?"

"You know, a thought and a feeling at the same time," said Leo. "A theeling that we won't want to know about this god of time?"

"Sort of," replied Piper, flipping to a random page in a random book. "Maybe we should just start at the beginning and go through everything. It'll be longer, but we'll cover more grounds." She began to read out loud. "Once upon a time there was a Titan who had a bunch of kids and he swallowed them all, just 'cause."

"Is it actually written like that?" asked Leo, interested, looking over her shoulder at the book. Piper shoved him away.

"Jeez, I'm paraphrasing," she told him. "Anyway, one of these kids wasn't eaten, Zeus—"

"God of the gods," said Leo tiredly. "Yeah, Piper, I've gotta tell you something. News flash! Used gossip, hel-_llloo!?"_

Piper ignored him. "Zeus survived. Then he fed his daddy some horrible concoction to make him throw up his siblings, and after a long war, the gods drove the Titans back into Tartarus. Some Titans include Iapetus, Hyperion, Epimethous, and the one who started it all, Kronos, the lord of…" Her face paled considerably.

"Lord of what? Idiots?" Leo asked.

Piper frowned at him. "Try time," she said.

* * *

**That was a horrible cliffhanger, I know, but I'm tired and I don't want to write anymore. So go away.**

**I'm kidding! It's just that I'm evil and I don't have Rick's cliffhanger skills. But whatever.**

**Now some reviews!**

**-o-O-o-**

_**dont wana log on: **_**What, stalker much? Canada; that's all I'm telling you.**

_**CrazyChick:**_** I don't think Festus is going to appear, because I replaced him with Chime. Ha. Maybe, though, but I don't think so.**

_**hernie locker: **_**Don't worry. No one's going to die in the war. (Well, no one important anyway... MUAHAHAHAHA!)**

_**EpicMusic:**_** That's the POINT the Greeks didn't do ANYTHING but OCTAVIAN has this CONSPIRACY thingy going on in his HEAD and he believes that the GREEKS are EVIL and now he has the entire CAMP under his train of THOUGHTS. (I just made random words caps. :D)**

**_Forever South: _Thank you for your long review!  
**

**-o-O-o-**

**Now review, or else you are a heartless jerk.**


	30. Books and Gaea

**Hello, I am back.**

**30TH CHAPTER YAY!**

**Disclaimer: Too lazy to admit it.**

**Let's get this party started! (So many of your prayers have been answered in this chapter.)**

* * *

**Piper**

"So?" asked Leo, uncaring.

Piper resisted the urge to slap him.

"So? _SO!? _This is Kronos, the Titan who _everyone _in camp is talking about because Percy-_Freaking_-_JACKSON_-**_KILLED HIM!"_**

"Oh, yeah, in the Second Titan war. I remember now," said Leo, putting his book aside, unfazed by Piper's frustration. "He possessed some Hermes kid. Then the Hermes kid stabbed himself." He shook his head sadly. "Not a nice way to go."

"Don't you realize what this means?" shrieked Piper, grabbing some pencil she found (there were surprisingly a lot of them in the cabin) and circling the title in her book. "This horrible bad guy has access to the Lord of Time, who is currently serving his time in Tartarus!"

Leo stopped to stare at her without getting it. "And I'm guessing that this is bad…?"

Piper was about to slam her fist down on her book in frustration, and probably afterwards on Leo's face, but then someone asked from behind them, "What are you doing here?"

Piper turned, slowly. There stood a boy and a girl a few years older than she and Leo at the doorway. Piper recognized them as the camp's personal heroes, Percy Jackson and his sidekick/girlfriend Annabeth Something.

"What do you think, O Wise One?" Percy asked Annabeth. He gestured all the books on the floor, piled around Leo and Piper.

Annabeth frowned. "Alright," she decided, turning to Leo and Piper. "But next time, just ask if you need the cabin's books. I thought you two were the Stoll brothers trying to scheme another spider prank." She shuddered. "Spiders," she muttered quietly to herself.

"Well, we're so sorry," Piper said, getting to her feet. "Now that you're here we should probably leave—"

"Probably," Percy added.

"—But nonsense," Annabeth butted in. "You were here for _something. _Let me see if I can help."

Percy groaned, falling forward on one of the beds. "Please spare me the agony of learning," his voice muffled.

"Ah, actually, I don't think we need _that _much help," Piper said slowly and deliberately. She had heard the stories. Mentioning Kronos in front of these guys probably wouldn't be such a good idea. "Thanks anyway, though."

Annabeth blinked. "Uh, sure," she said.

Piper realized that she had just used charmspeak unintentionally. She winced, waiting for Annabeth to realize this. But she didn't, and instead began to pick up all the books strewn on the floor. Leo stood up.

"Yeah, you can do that," he said, gesturing the books.

Piper sighed and got down on her knees, helping Annabeth put everything away while the guys stood around doing nothing.

"So, you're Percy Jackson," Leo said to Percy.

"Yeah," came his muffled reply from inside the bed.

"That's… that's cool," said Leo.

"Leo, we have to go now," Piper said, standing up once again. "Thanks again, guys," she called back to Annabeth and Percy, only speaking to Annabeth as Percy hadn't done anything.

Once they were outside and the door had closed behind them, Leo gave in to his ridiculous superhero pose again. "To the forges!" he announced loudly. He jumped over the porch railing and landed a few feet down with an awkward combat roll. Piper followed him.

"You could break open your skull open trying that," she informed him.

"Not if your skull is as tough as mine," Leo said, tapping it. "Tough as rock. 'Cause rock is tough. Unless it's melted."

Piper rolled her eyes and was about to say more when the ground beneath their feet sank, taking them with it up to their ankles.

"Ew," said Piper, looking down in disgust. "Mud."

She and Leo tried to step out of the mess, but the mud solidified around their feet, trapping them where they stood.

"Uh... Does this usually happen?" said Leo worriedly, tugging at his legs. "I mean, to demigods and stuff?"

Piper tried to yank herself out of the ground without avail. "Unless you somehow angered the god of dirt," she replied, tugging. "Which I don't think exists."

_…Ah… So young and clueless… Innocence is truly a wonderful thing…_

Piper froze. That voice. Where was it coming from? She looked around and saw Leo, frozen beside her. He obviously recognized this person.

_…I will watch your failed attempts with much pleasure, my young heroes… _It was soft and sleepy, but hard and cruel at the same time, as if though Hitler's female counterpart was having a nice dream about placing a bomb on all of the Americas (both of them). Piper had a feeling that asking for this person to reveal herself would be no use. Instead, she struggled even further to free herself of her imprisonment.

_…But your attempts will be failed… As you see, I still sleep, but the entire world beckons me home… The entire _Earth_, in fact…_

_Earth… _thought Piper. It was obvious Leo was thinking the same thing, as they shared worried glances.

"Who are you?" Leo demanded defiantly. Piper guessed he would have stepped forward threateningly if he could without tripping and falling onto his face pathetically.

_…Ah… young Leo… I remember you… Your mother was a charming woman…_

Suddenly, Leo faltered as if stuck. He stood back, breathing heavily for a few seconds as if holding himself back from bursting into flames and killing everything. "Leo!" Piper yelled. "Don't listen to her!"

_…And Piper, dear, sweet Piper… Your time will come soon enough… don't you worry…_

Piper paled. Her time would come? What?

_…I would tell you to stop your failing attempts, but it is all just too much fun to watch… I actually hope you succeed… many more reasons to kill you both…_

Leo tried to break free again—as did Piper—but they were simply swallowed deeper to her knees, then thighs. Piper cried out in surprised, and Leo swore loudly.

_…But do not worry; I shall not fail... Not this time, my heroes..._

And with a horrible cold and soft laugh, the voice was gone.

They didn't speak to each other for a second. Finally, Piper asked Leo, "Are you okay?"

"I'm… I'm fine," he lied, taking deep breaths to calm himself. He placed one hand to the ground and his hand burned red, melting the ground into mud. It was messy, but effective. They were both free and sitting in a pile of sludge in less than five minutes.

"Who was that lady?" asked Piper, suddenly feeling much colder than before, hugging her knees close to her.

"Probably a ninja turtle," Leo admitted. "Now c'mon. We've gotta get back to the forges."

"You're right," said Piper, ignoring the ninja turtle comment. They started to race back when they realized they were still covered in mud.

"After a shower?" asked Piper.

"Sure," replied Leo, and they headed off to their own cabins.

**-o-O-o-**

By the time Piper had gotten all cleaned up again, her cabin had returned from the campfire. Just in time, too, because Drew looked ready to throw her out of the washroom at any second. Piper silently threw her drying pants in the dirty-clothes bin and headed out.

Leo, a few other Hephaestus campers, and a gang of girls from a minor goddess's cabin were at the forges, but Leo was the only one working alone. She joined him.

"I did a bit of research, and I learned this woman's name," said Leo. "This is just a hunch, but when she said _the whole Earth_ _beckons me, _I realized that all the signs pointed to Gaea, the earth goddess. But could she actually be called a goddess, anyway? Just because she's technically older than the Titans and—"

"I was actually thinking about what she said, Leo," said Piper. "She kept repeating that we would fail no matter what. Should we just stop and warn the camp, or—"

"No," said Leo firmly. "Look at it this way; just because you're the worst player on your soccer team doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Or an even better metaphor; when the earth itself personally tells you that it wants to kill you and to just let it happen, will you just stand by looking pretty and do _nothing,_ or at least _try_ to prevent Mother Nature from turning the world into a burning inferno?"

Piper sighed. He had a point. "All right, what next?" she asked, running a hand through her hair.

"This is all the info we have so far; there was a war against Gaea, and it was so bad Hera had to switch two people from the camps for a reason we don't exactly know yet. Those two people went on adventures that had to do with prophecies, and in the end they defeated Gaea. But Gaea asked her son Kronos for help, and sent someone or something back in time to change Hera's mind. That never happened, and so the prophecies never existed, thus creating this one," explained Leo.

"Oh, gods, we are so good!" Piper squealed even though Leo had done all the summarizing, high-fiving him. "And it's only the first day!"

"So now we can concentrate on other things, such as this machine," said Leo. "Apparently, I have to create something that will help you convince all the Romans not to attack; the effect of the switch from happening. Or create a time machine to stop Gaea in the first place."

"We could use a giant megaphone," suggested Piper.

"I like the time travelling idea."

"But wouldn't that create a paradox?" Piper asked.

"You know, if a paradox were to ever occur the universe would explode," said Leo.

"You actually believe that?" asked Piper.

"Hey, if Greek gods are real, why can't paradoxes and dancing monkeys and juggling hippopotamus be?"

Piper face-palmed.

"But I doubt we'll ever get our hands on one of those anyway," said Leo. He yawned. "Could we work on this tomorrow? Being swallowed by the earth itself really takes it out of a man."

"Sure," said Piper. "Tomorrow."

Leo grabbed the two sheets and stapled them together, folding them into his pocket. He dropped the pencil on the worktable, and after a quick and sleepy goodnight to Piper, he trudged off to his cabin, Piper going her own way.

Christine, who had been eavesdropping on the entire thing from her table of friends nearby, grinned.

_And so it begins, _she thought.

* * *

**This chapter is longer and FULL of action, I hope.**

**First thing; Kronos! AAH!  
Second thing; Gaea! AAH!  
Third thing; Romans! AAH!  
Fourth thing; ANNABETHANDPERCYOHMIGODSPERCABETH!**

**Yes, they didn't really do anything now, but they needed to be mentioned because I have decided to include them in the story. Just later on.**

***you guys start fan-girling/guying because half of the reviewers at some point wanted Percabeth to show up***

**So review and stuff. Make sure to check out my other stories! I have nine of them now, most of them oneshots... Actually, I think I only have three stories that aren't oneshots or threeshots... Hmm...**

**And don't forget! I'm still taking those requests!**


	31. Wake-Ups and Head-Bonks

**My humble followers in the land of Liper! How do you do!? *waves regally from the top of a tall tower upon you awesome beings, wearing a pointy princess hat as well as a poofy pink dress***

**Anyway, how's life? Life's good for me. Been totally lazy all summer, which I'm wondering if I should be worried about or not. I mean, one day I'll be old (if God permits) and I'll look back at 2013 summer and say... "Oh, I remember that year... I did absolutely nothing... I should have done more with my life."**

**Anyway...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO.**

**PS: This chapter is super short. Don't kill me!**

* * *

**Piper**

Piper got up a lot earlier than everyone else in her cabin. She dressed quickly and snuck outside. A few straying campers wandered about before breakfast, but no one was really truly awake.

The daughter of Aphrodite wished she could continue working on the project without Leo, but he was the one with all the pages. Instead, she went to the camp's school (where you learn all about Greek myths and stuff) and took out a book on Gaea. She took it to a desk and began to read.

Leo joined her a half-hour later. "Good to see you up," Piper commented without lifting her eyes from the page.

"And I brought someone," said Leo.

Piper looked up. "Who?"

Chime fluttered in, whistling while flying in lazy circles around the room. Piper laughed, closing her book gently.

"I thought you might want to see her," said Leo. He pulled a desk up next to Piper's and laid down the sheets on there. He pulled out a mechanical pencil and slammed it down next to them. Chime fluttered down onto Piper's shoulder, peering down at their project obliviously.

"To finish this, I want to skip all the things scheduled for today," said Leo. "It's sort of like skipping school, but for a noble cause."

"Very noble," agreed Piper, nodding. "So, where should we start today?"

They gave themselves five minutes to discuss. Chime pecked at Piper's ear affectionately during this time, unknowing of what Piper and Leo were actually saying. Eventually, Leo came to a decision.

"We need more help," he announced.

"We can't tell; remember?" asked Piper. "If we do the Romans will figure us out and everyone will write us off as liars and the Romans will probably kill us."

"I meant indirectly," said Leo, stashing the pages into his pocket. "Ask some Athena kid for all the myths about Gaea and full detail about the Second Titan war. And Romans."

"Sure," Piper agreed. "That could work."

"I don't think you're going to be visiting anyone today," said a voice behind them. Neither Piper nor Leo had time to whirl around to see who it was before their heads were smashed together in an awesome-on-TV-but-not-so-much-in-real-life way. They were both unconscious before they hit the floor.

* * *

**Oh, gods, I just realized how truly short that was.**

**Thousands of apologies! And because of this lack of chapter, I'll answer some reviews**

**-o-O-o-**

_**LIPERFAN101:**_** Thank you! Your review REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALY (I DON'T CARE I SPELT THAT WRONG) REALLY REALLY REALLY made my day!**

_**ByTheMoment:**_** Aw, man! How can I choose _one _couple? I have a whole ton, including Jeyna, Percabeth (everyone squeals), Liper, Frazel, EllaxTyson (I have no idea what their couple name is), Tratie, HedgexThat-Nymph-I-Forgot-Her-Name... et cetera...**

_**elliefs:**_** You, in fact, were the first reviewer. And for that I applaud you.**

_**Guest:**_** Seriously? _Hours? _I knew I was good, but this is awesome!**

_**EpicMusic:**_** I totally am waiting for the House of Hades! I plan on buying it on my Kobo five in the morning Oct. 8th like I did with the Mark of Athena.**

**-o-O-o-**

**Anyway, please review, and I'm still taking requests. I've got three so far, from _Gabsters,_ _The Minun, _another one from _The Minun. _(Though _Gabsters, _I already have the idea and I don't think that'll happen. But I'll let you in on a secret... hazelandleoandpiperdobecomeanepictriotodefeattheev ilromans.)**

**Peace out!**


	32. Knives and Personalities

**Guys, I felt so bad for the super-short chapter earlier that I decided that review-answering wan't enough. WE NEED ANOTHER SHORT CHAPTER!**

**So I wrote out this.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Piper**

_Ow, _was the first thing Piper thought when she awoke. She rose a hand to grab at her throbbing head, only to find both of them lashed tightly behind her back.

_I'm tied up, _she realized stupidly.

_Thank you for that, Mrs. Obvious, _her irritated side replied curtly.

Slowly and deliberately, she inched her eyes open. She felt cold water advance and recede between her barefoot toes, and smelled the strong salty ocean nearby. She was sitting on some sort of fine powder.

Not powder, she thought, running her bound fingers through the stuff behind her. Sand.

_Took you long enough, _her irritated trait interrupted insolently.

Soon her eyelids had opened wide enough to slit her pupils into the space and get a fuzzy picture of what was happening around her. She saw a girl perhaps her age—possibly younger—sitting on a large rock on the beach near the water. She had a knife and was sharpening it the old fashioned way—with a rock. She hadn't realized Piper was awake yet.

_One of the Romans, _she realized.

_We're dead, _decided her other personality.

_Oh, shut up, _replied the first, which wasn't so much stupid as annoyed by then.

A terrible headache hit her then. She winced, squeezing her eyes shut once more, wishing so badly she could grab at her pounding head. Whatever she was resting against shifted with her, almost dropping her to the sand.

_Leo, _she thought, and before her other side could interrupt with some rude comment, she added to it, _Don't even think about it._

"And so they live," noticed the girl sitting on the rock. She struck the blade of her knife against the rock three more times, then twirled it around her fingers expertly as if she had been performing that trick since she was able to lift the freaking thing. Then, as casually as Piper would tell her dad "I'm going to bed now", the girl tossed the rock up into the air and sliced her blade through it, neatly cutting it in half. The two rocks that had originally been one fell on the sand with twin thuds.

Piper could only imagine how easily she could thrust that dagger through her.

"So, let's get the facts straight," the other girl started, getting to her feet slowly and deliberately. "It's been three hours since you were last awake. No one except for our little gang of Romans knows exactly what happened to you two. You guys obviously know what that means, because you were somehow eavesdropping on our little meeting in Cali. I officially can't execute you guys right now because of New Rome laws and stuff, and I can't exactly call them right now 'cause the praetors are too busy getting ready for our attack, but I'll do it tonight. Don't think I won't."

Piper had never doubted her.

"Now," she finished sweetly, as if just finished explaining to a five-year-old how to bake cookies. "Any questions?"

"My head hurts," Leo commented.

The girl just rolled her eyes and turned back to her rock, continuing to sharpen her dagger with one of the rock halves.

"Leo!" Piper hissed to her partner. "We gotta get out of here!"

"I would try to think of something to do just that, but my head hurts too much to think," he replied. "Wake me up later." He lolled his head forward and snored loudly.

"Leo!" Piper hissed more forcefully, shoving him with her back, seeing that that was the only way to shove him. Realizing that it was no use negotiating, she strained at the ropes binding her hands together. She wished she could get Leo to use his fire power to burn the rope, but he couldn't do that without burning her.

"Don't bother," said the girl without looking up from her task, hearing Piper's grunts and struggles. "I spent years studying and perfecting that not. You'll need a little bit more than a chainsaw to break through that."

Piper fumed, knowing that she was probably right. Instead, she took in the surroundings that went past the beach.

There was a dense forest just up the sand. They had probably been carried through the woods to the other side, where no campers dared venture alone. And even if someone _did _stray, they would have to speak to that girl's twisted knife.

Then there was the ocean. The tide didn't seem too high or too low at the moment. She could sort of see New York in the distance, if she strained and squinted enough. No use trying to signal a passing boat; that would just result in way more problems than she needed. And whoever was on it probably wouldn't be able to see through the Mist anyway.

Piper realized in horror that she couldn't help herself. And no help was coming.

She was going to die.

_Told ya._

_SHUT UP!_

* * *

**Piper has a disorder. Multiple personalities.**

**Disclaimer: The same as before.**

**Review and request! Yeah!**


	33. Technical Difficulties and Meeting Hazel

**Disclaimer: You know what it is.**

**Anyway, folks, here is the next chapter. Enjoy it, because I made it long just for you!**

* * *

**Chime**

It had been a while since Chime was able to fly without a remote, and it was definitely a wonderful experience. One day she would fly laps around the Hephaestus cabin with her automaton friends, the next wow and stun all of the kids of Aphrodite with her stunning elegance. (Well, all except Drew. Chime now knew why Piper spoke so badly of her.)

But other than wings, Leo had added a few extra capabilities to Chime's list of amazing features. She hadn't tried any of them out yet, but she was just dying to. But, unfortunately, he hadn't added a speaking option. The largest sound Chime could produce was a short whistle. She'd have to ask Leo to fix that one day… somehow.

"Come on, Chimmy-Chimmy-Chip-Chap," said Leo, calling her down from a perch in the Hephaestus cabin while stuffing a few sheets of paper into his pocket. "We're gonna go visit Aunty Piper. You wanna do that?"

Chime couldn't actually understand him—she didn't know the language any of these humans spoke in—but she recognized the words as they were from memory, and so flew down and balanced herself on Leo's shoulder. At first Chime had thought of Piper and Leo as masters, like owners or something. But she reasoned they were past that. They were friends.

They headed into the camp's school, much to Chime's displeasure. She didn't like that place. No fun in there. But she didn't object either.

They found Piper seated at a desk, studying for something. After a short talk between Leo and Piper, Chime realized something bigger than a study date for an upcoming test was going on. Not sure exactly of what but being unable to ask, she remained perched on Piper's shoulder, trying to read the jumble of letters on the paper in front of her. Another thing Chime couldn't do—read. But she knew better than to ask Leo for that. It would make her seem as if she were ungrateful, which she most certainly was not. Just being that old toy in some guy's shop at the train station was _way_ boring. (Speaking of that, she might go visit her siblings one day, and tell them stories of Camp Half-Blood once she got that speaking option set into motion.)

For a few minutes Chime amused herself with pecking Piper's ear, until Leo finally began to pack up his papers. _At last, _thought Chime. _We're leaving._

She noticed someone else come in. He was one of the bigger Ares campers, who were all bulk and grunts. Chime twittered nervously, but her chirp was drowned out by the big guy's words. He was speaking to Piper and Leo, but they didn't know he was there. Now, what was he doing…?

Oh gods.

Now crumpled lifelessly on the floor, Leo and Piper were oblivious of what was happening around them. Chime flew up and pecked furiously at the big camper, trying to hit the weak areas of a human, such as the neck and face, but he easily swatted her away easily, as if she were simply a stupid automaton in his way, which she was.

Chime landed on her left wing on one of the desks. Fortunately for her she was only a machine, because had she not been one she would have sprained it for sure. But when she tried to flap it in unison with her right wing, nothing happened. All the bird could do while her friends were kidnapped was watch powerlessly.

She tried to hop down to the ground and tail the big camper on foot, but her tiny bird legs was no match for his long strides. He was gone and out of the doorway before Chime had reached the edge of the desk.

But Chime didn't give up hope just yet. She tried flying once more, and although it took lots of effort to keep flying straight and not off to the left on a steep barrel-dive, she managed.

She flew out of a window and headed straight up to where she could see for farther distances. She turned around in three circles, trying to spot the large kidnapper with her expert implanted bird vision.

There. Headed into the forest. Chime flew down and in his direction. Her dive gathered up her momentum, and she set a horrific mental picture of herself crashing into that big bully and sending him flying five feet into the air and causing him to crash on the ground out cold, and then Leo and Piper would pop back to life, and they'd all celebrate, and they'd thank her by giving her the power of speech and ability to read, as well as get ice cream.

What actually happened was everything she had predicted but happening to the wrong person. Chime fell back against a nearby tree, tangled in its branches. She felt next to nothing, but a wire inside her metal workings had snapped.

_He's getting away! _she thought drowsily. Leo had programmed her mechanical body to repair itself for minor injuries and technical difficulties such as this. But it took up lots of battery life, and the only way for it to actually work was if she powered down an hour or two, depending on how severe the problem was. And that was happening right then. Chime was falling asleep.

_I'll get him, _she promised herself. _Just after a nice, short nap…_

**-o-O-o-**

Chime reawakened with a start. Somehow, she was in a tree, cradled in its branches, the terrain beneath her deserted. How did she get there? What...?

Then it came back.

Fortunately the auto-fix had healed her wing along with the snapped wire (or at least made it flyable again). But only Leo would be able to fix her completely, and that couldn't happen if he was killed, now, would it?

Chime pumped herself up for some extreme flying. She then realized with a start that she had no clue to where she was going.

_So much for that rescue._

But she _did _know that that big camper was part of the Ares cabin. So she'd start there.

Outside the cabin, Christine was explaining what was happening to a misunderstanding Hazel. Chime hid on the roof of the cabin, perching herself on top of a skull.

"We're going to call camp tonight to get the execution permission," Christine was saying.

"And this is just because they know too much?" Hazel asked. For a second her eyes flitted up to where Chime sat, but she didn't notice her.

"Well, what do you think would happen if they told someone?" replied Christine. "The attack would be countered, and maybe their cursed horse-men would even win the battle for the Greeks. Our fears would be realized."

"Don't you mean _Octavian's_ fears?" asked Hazel.

Christine furrowed her eyebrows together in incomprehension. "No. _Our."_

She wasn't convincing anyone.

"Well, I gotta be going," she said. "See ya later?"

"Maybe," said Hazel, though she knew that Christine would be avoiding her as much as possible.

Of course, Chime didn't recognize any of these words, except _execution, know too much, attack, Greeks, _and _fears. _This was enough to realize what was going on, but not enough to tell her where Leo and Piper had been taken to.

Once Christine left, Hazel turned to Chime. "You can come out now," she said.

Chime was bewildered. She had known she was there?

"I sensed you," explained Hazel as if reading the bird's thoughts. She pointed her finger right at where Chime sat. "You have a Celestial Bronze heart. I saw the metal in you."

Chime still wasn't convinced, mostly because she had no idea what Hazel had just said.

"I don't want to do this attack any more than you want it to happen," Hazel continued. "It's pointless, really. And you Greeks aren't actually that bad. I'm willing to bet that half of my camp doesn't want to do it either, but since Octavian's leading it they'll follow his suit." Hazel sighed. "Your friends are behind the forest. At the beach."

Chime twittered. It sounded truthful enough, from what she had understood. She cautiously hovered down, ready to dash off if need be. Hazel let her land on her open palm.

"I'll take you to them," she offered.

Chime tweeted, which was her way of saying yes.

**-o-O-o-**

The forest was not fun. Chime had never actually been in there, but she picked up bits of the conversation that she understood from Piper and Leo when they talked about it. It was spooky, she decided. Hazel had brought a weapon to defend herself, and Chime was glad for it.

In total, they encountered five monsters. Two were easily defeated. They hid from two more. But the last one was a very big drakon.

Hazel muttered something that Chime didn't have on her list of English words. She probably didn't want to know what it meant anyway.

So, of course, Hazel ran. Chime decided to fly. The drakon was _way _faster, but they were near the end of the forest. Just a hundred meters and they were free—so basically a short sprint.

They combat-rolled out of the forest and fell on their faces in the sand. The drakon snarled angrily, but retreated back into its home.

"Next time, we go around the forest instead of through it," Hazel decided, picking herself up.

Chime twittered.

They started to walk along the sand, waiting to run into Piper and Leo. After a minute or two, they rounded a corner and spotted them up ahead, sitting back-to-back on the sand, another girl guarding them to make sure they didn't run off.

"Hide," Hazel whispered to Chime.

_Hey, I know what that means! _the bird thought excitedly, realizing that she knew the word. _She wants me to put myself of sight. I can do that._

She flew into the forest trees, but concealed herself behind the first one she came across. No way was she re-entering that noxious wood.

"Hey, Marcy," Chime heard Hazel call out.

"What are you doing here?" demanded the other girl, Marcy.

Chime imagined Hazel shrugging. "My cabin is on a break. You were guarding these guys for like, four hours. I can take it from here."

"You sure?" Marcy sounded skeptical.

"'Course I am," replied Hazel.

"Well, I did want to try that rock climbing wall again… All right. I'll be back in two hours."

"Two hours. Got it."

Chime watched Marcy disappear back into the forest, twirling her dagger around her fingers. Up ahead, she spotted the drakon she and Hazel had run from. Without flinching, Marcy cart-wheeled to the side and sliced her dagger along its side. In less than five seconds, it had turned into a fine yellow dust. She walked on without looking back.

_Yikes, _thought Chime, a word she had picked up from Leo. She then flew out from her cover and landed on Hazel's shoulder, who had seated herself on the rock.

"So…" she said, crossing her legs and peering at her prisoners. "How's life?"

"Great," Piper replied. "The highlight of my week has been when Romans with intentions of destroying my camp marched in and kidnapped me."

"That's excellent," Hazel commented. She pulled out a dagger from her boot and hopped down from the rock.

"What are you going to do with that?" asked Leo nervously.

"Chime?" asked Piper, catching sight of the bird on Hazel's shoulder for the first time.

Chime fluttered down to her master's ear and nuzzled her crest against her neck. Piper laughed uncertainly. "What?" she asked with an unsure smile.

Hazel knelt down next to Leo and cut the bonds around his wrist. When she was done sawing, she moved on to Piper.

"But you're a Roman," said Piper once free.

"So?" asked Hazel. "Not all of us are power-hungry maniacs like Octavian. I'm Hazel, by the way."

"I'm Leo, and she's Piper. Is Octavian that blond guy in the Iris Message?" Leo asked, rubbing his sore wrists.

"That's the one."

"I didn't really like him."

"No one really does."

"I do," said a new voice. The three demigods plus the bird turned to see who it was.

Well, apparently Marcy _hadn't _completely left, because she had heard them talking and headed back. "He's one of our camp's leaders," she finished.

"Hey, Marcy," said Hazel awkwardly. "What's up?"

* * *

**Ooh! Cliffhanger!**

**They're all going to die.**

**Anyway, how did you enjoy that in the bird's perspective? I wanted to try something different, so I went with that.**

**-o-O-o-**

_**BookFreak:**_** Yes, Nico shows up in the story. (Why does everyone want the characters from PJatO to show up in an HoO fanfiction...?)**

_**Guest:**_** I'm sorry but I have no idea what 'ERMAHGERD!' means.**

**_Demigod1996:_**** Yes, Percy and Annabeth will show up more.**

**_Donavin: _****Thank you for loving me! I love you in a not-weird-I-don't-actually-know-you way too!**

**_elliefs:_**** She doesn't actually have it. I just made it like that so the chapter would be funnier. **

_**klc1-25:**_** o_o I forgot about that... ...I made a mistake... ...This has never happened before... ...I don't know what to do...! ...I'm just going to end with that...**

_**LIPERFAN101: **_**This _is _the best story on FanFiction, I know. (No offense to other fanfictions too!)**

_**Gabsters:**_** Don't worry, there won't be, because Piper and Leo aren't together yet. They're all friends right now.**

**-o-O-o-**

**Review! Check out my other story 'The Lost Tales of HoO' or something like that. It would be really appreciated, because unlike this story that has OVER 250 REVIEWS (YAY CONGRATULATIONS!), that one isn't so popular.**


	34. Bewitchment and PROMPT

**Hello, people! I am here with a brand new chapter, hot off the press! (Not really, I wrote it out before, and then I edited it, so this more like a bit warm off the press and whatnot.)**

**And, anyway, someone gave me a prompt and I wrote it out, but it's really short (like 200 words), so it's going to be the bonus extra of this chapter! So this chapter is dedicated to _krikanalo_ for the prompt!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own HoO**

* * *

**Piper**

"Hazel, you traitor," Marcy snarled, advancing with her twisted cut-through-anything dagger. "You sided with the Greeks. The _enemies._"

"No, I'm still a Roman," Hazel reassured, holding out her hands to show that she meant no harm. "But this attack on our 'enemies' is totally uncalled for, and—"

With three swift strikes of the hilt of her blade, Marcy had Hazel lying with her face in the sand with limbs that weren't functional. "I'll deal with you later," she spat at the younger girl. Then she pressed on toward Leo and Piper, who backed away uncertainly.

"Stop!" Piper yelled, her hands sprayed out in front of her in instinct defence. Marcy hesitated for a brief second.

"What is this?" she demanded, raising her blade threateningly. "What are you doing!?"

"What do you mean?" asked Piper innocently taking back her arms and shrugging widely. "We're friends. I would never try to hurt you."

"Hurt… me?" asked Marcy. Her eyes seemed to glaze over slightly.

"And you wouldn't do it to me either," replied Piper. Thinking on her toes, she added, "Wouldn't it be nice to just sleep for a while?"

"Sleep…?" clarified Marcy, her eyelids suddenly feeling heavy. Of course, she wasn't actually tired—Piper's charmspeak was simply convincing her brain that she was, even if her body didn't agree.

"Yes, sleep," confirmed Piper. "And you can also pass me that nasty pointed dagger while you're at it. You won't need it when you sleep."

"Sleep," repeated Marcy. Her shoulders fell slightly, but she forced them back up again.

"What sort of bewitchment is this?" she demanded forcefully, though you could tell there was some drowsiness in there.

"No bewitchment," Piper told her soothingly, her voice a lullaby. "We're friends—remember?"

"You're cursed," said Marcy. "I'll get you. I'll kill you. But after a short nap… I'm so tired…"

She had barely finished her sentence before the Roman fell forward, asleep in the air. Piper yelped and jumped out of the way, allowing Marcy to fall on her front, snoring drowsily, snorting sand out of her nose.

Piper turned to Leo to give him a high-five, only to find him knelt in the sand snoring. Hazel was in the same position. Her charmspeak had been so powerful she had lulled her friends to sleep unintentionally. Piper, unsure of what to do, nudged Leo with her foot.

"Wake up," she told him. When this tactic didn't work she tried, "Hey, Leo, they're giving away free tacos at Walmart from one to one thirty, and it's already one twenty-nine."

Leo's eyes shot open. "What?" he spluttered, getting sand in his mouth. He got to his knees, spitting over and over again to get the taste of sand out of his mouth.

"What did you do?" Hazel asked, sitting up with her arms dangling behind her like a rag doll's. The effects of Marcy's karate-jitsu hadn't worn off yet.

"Charmspeak," replied Piper, her voice returned to normal. "Powerful stuff."

"Quick, guys!" said Leo suddenly, startling them. "We have to get to Walmart. Free tacos for another minute! We need to make it—!"

"Not really, Leo," Piper told him, and his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Is charmspeak dangerous?" Hazel asked Piper curiously.

"Only if I want it to be," she replied with a grin. When she saw Hazel's horrified expression, she laughed. "It's okay," Piper reassured her. "I'm safe."

"Yeah, but camp might not be," said Leo, pulling out the super-important two sheets of paper from his pocket and spreading it out on the sand. Piper knelt down next to him, Hazel doing the same. The Roman quickly skimmed through what they had.

"So you think Gaia sent someone back in time with Cronos's help?" she asked. "I'm sort of surprised. After what he did to her…"

"What did he do?" asked Piper, just out of interest.

"He overthrew both parents, of course," explained Hazel. "I'm not sure how exactly, but Cronos overthrew Gaea and whoever her husband was just like Zeus did it to him."

"That messes up things a bit," said Leo. "But not important. We just need to figure out how we're gonna stop the ruthless Romans from slaughtering us all." He turned to Hazel. "No offense."

"It would be a lie to say that I hadn't taken any, but I'll let it slip you by this one time," Hazel replied.

"Do you know some way we could get to your camp before the attack?" Piper asked Hazel.

"Uh, I got here by plane," Hazel announced, "but the others are coming by warships, which would sort of become a problem."

"So, is your camp in Florida or something?" Leo asked.

"California," Hazel replied.

"But… then how do you guys plan on showing up?"

"Ships can be enchanted to fly," Hazel replied. "It's actually pretty fun."

Leo sighed. "Of course," he said. "In the demigod world, anything is possible. Even purple dragons that dance like Barney and eat little kids."

"I don't know about the Barney part, but there are quite a few purple dragons," Hazel said. "In fact, there's this guy at camp who got his arm eaten by one."

Leo sighed.

**-o-O-o-**

**Super-short request prompt!**

**Prompt: ****_'those pesky plumbers'_**

After a nice long workout, Christine spotted a water fountain not too far away. She jogged toward it, wiping sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. She leaned down and pressed the button that was supposed to make the fountain spew water, but nothing happened. Confused, she pressed it again, and the water shot right at her face.

She frowned, moving out of the way and pressing the button once more. The water shot up forcefully, straight up into the air, going at least twenty feet. Christine looked around at the campers around her to see if they thought this wasn't normal, but no one really cared. She took a couple steps back and pushed the button with the tip of her sword. Something that was definitely _not _water flew out and hit her in the face, smothering her in green, thick slime.

"Those pesky plumbers," she muttered, stalking away to take a shower at her cabin. "What is wrong with people nowadays!?"

A few feet away, the hidden Stoll brothers silently high-fived each other.

* * *

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that.**

**Please check out my other story, The Lost Tales of HoO. I don't update it as often as this one, but it's still good. (At least, I think it is...) And remember to review! I did the math, and for every chapter we have around eight reviews! So to those eight reviewers who constantly review, thank you!**


	35. Following Trails and Doomsday Devices

**Hello, I am back! How are you today? I am doing great, thank you.**

**(You're going to love this chapter, I promise.)**

**Disclaimer, I do not own this chapter, nor this story. All of it belongs to a certain troll who goes by the name Rick Riordan.**

* * *

**Annabeth**

* * *

_AN: And that was all I was able to do before you guys began freaking out. Just so you know that I called this._

* * *

THE DAY LEO AND PIPER WERE CAUGHT IN THE ATHENA CABIN

"Hey, Percy," Annabeth called out, "did you hear that?"

"No," Percy replied, still speaking into his pillow.

Annabeth and Percy had gotten tired of the campfire and had headed off to Annabeth's cabin. They had seen the silhouette of two people inside, and Annabeth's first thought was that it was the Stoll brothers trying to prank her and her siblings again. But it had turned out just to be Piper and Leo.

Piper had refused to tell her what they had been looking for. Actually, no, Annabeth recalled. She hadn't refused. She had just… what had she said? Her memory was a bit muffled in that certain area.

Once they left, she had heard their talk recede from the cabin. But then she heard someone cry out in panic. Piper? Probably, but whatever caused her to scream made sure it wasn't fatal. Annabeth had seen her the next morning completely unscathed. But Piper had been distracted with _something._

But what?

**-o-O-o-**

THE PRESENT

Piper hadn't been seen anywhere, and neither had Leo. Nobody seemed to notice, but Annabeth did. She loved a good mystery. It was in her non-existent godly DNA.

She first needed to figure out what Piper and Leo had been looking for. She tried to remember all the books they had been reading when caught, but there had been several, most being too thick to read in one lifetime.

Annabeth picked up the first one. Maybe they had scribbled notes down in the margins. She did that sometimes. She flipped to the Table of Contents, then briefly through the book. Nothing. Then the next book. Still, nothing arose.

By then Annabeth grew tired. Maybe Piper just had to leave camp early, and Leo went with her. This whole thing was stupid. Still, she felt something was up. An instinct told her so. She sighed and flipped through her third book.

There. On one of the first pages. Someone had circled the name Kronos, and by how deep and thick the pencil lines were Annabeth could tell they had been frustrated.

_Okay, so you have a name. Now what? _

Well, what did she know about that guy?

_Please. Save me the emotional trauma._

Annabeth sighed and closed the book. Maybe trying to figure out what they had been trying to figure out was too complicated. She needed to start small.

Such as… where the heck did they go?

She visited her boyfriend at his cabin. He was reading Olympus Daily, some newspaper the gods had decided to start.

"This is ridiculous," he told her, noticing Annabeth at the doorframe. "Aphrodite has some column about love and actually had the guts to ask people to send in their feedback. Does she know how much hate she'll be recieving? Listen to this. 'Zeus and Artemis would totally be good for each other. They're both strong-willed people and are completely sexist.' I think we have Thalia's next victim right here."

"That's nice," Annabeth said. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," he replied, tossing the booklet casually onto the floor. Annabeth noticed that the weather column was constantly changing around a map of the United States. "What's up?"

"Have you seen Piper and Leo lately?" she asked, getting straight to the point.

This took Percy a moment to figure out. "Leo… and Piper… Aren't those Aphrodite kids?"

"Only Piper is. Leo is Hephaestus."

"Well, come on. It's a miracle I know who they even are. This blasted camp has too many blasted campers."

"You're one of those blasted campers."

"Yeah, but I'm different. I'm BKD."

Pause.

"I'm sorry, Percy, but unless you mean a 'Barbie Kid Doll' I have no idea what that means."

Percy grinned. "Before Kronos Died."

Annabeth groaned and threw a pillow at his head. "I think I'm just going to find them myself, then," she said. "I need to ask them something."

"Hey, can I go with you?" Percy asked. "Some Ares camper with only nine-and-a-half fingers challenged me to a duel yesterday and now my back hurts like heck. And I'm bored."

Annabeth helped him to his feet and they walked out of the cabin holding hands.

"Where do you think you're going to find them?" Percy asked.

"I don't know," said Annabeth with a grin. "Yet."

**-o-O-o-**

The Stoll brothers were outside their cabin, creating some sort of miniature version of a doomsday device. When they saw Annabeth and Percy approaching them they quickly tried to cover their tracks by throwing their tools underneath the cabin and trying to hide the device with their backs.

"Hi, Annabeth. Percy," said Travis weakly. "What's up?"

"We need some help with finding someone," said Annabeth. "Your father is the god of travellers, and thus as well as lost people. We need to find some lost people."

"Mmhmm..." Connor said, sounding uninterested and bored. "What makes you think that we'll help you?"

"Because I have half a mind to break both of your arms for planting spiders in my cabin a few weeks ago," Annabeth replied. "And that's exactly what I plan to do if you don't help us."

Travis and Connor shared quick glances, both knowing that they couldn't out-fight Percy and Annabeth but wondering if they could still outrun them. "Okay, we'll help you," Travis decided. "When we prank people, we usually have to hide afterwards. So we know just the place to search. What area usually doesn't have lots of campers around it?"

Neither Annabeth nor Percy knew the answer to this question.

Connor sighed. "The forest, idiots," he said, instantly regretting he had called them idiots. "I mean, kind... nice... people-who-don't-hold-grudges people." He winced, turning to his brother. "Did that sound as bad as I thought it did?"

Travis nodded. "Anyway," he continued, "the first place to look is inside the forest, then if not around, and finally—"

"Behind," Annabeth finished, realizing this. She grabbed Percy's arm. "Come on. We have to go."

As she led him away, she turned back to the Stoll brothers. "And don't you even _think _about pranking my cabin again," she threatened. "Or I _will _keep my promise and break both your arms."

And then she was gone.

"So… this baby goes to the Apollo cabin instead?" Connor wondered, gesturing their device.

Travis sighed. "It appears so," he replied.

* * *

**Better send your prayers to the Apollo cabin. (They're gonna need it). **

**And Thomas (as he tried to duel Percy).**

**Anyway, review on how much you freaked out when you saw Annabeth's POV. Admit it. I know ****_AT LEAST _****half of you did. (And I'm talking to all the people who said Percabeth needed to be in the story. You know who you are.)**


	36. Getting the Group Together (part 1)

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

**Anyway, thank you SO much _Agent of Chaos_ for your constructive criticism. I appreciate it, and I will do my best to improve my writing. So, (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**

* * *

**Piper**

"So what's the game plan?" Piper asked, lying flat on her stomach in the sand and resting her head in her hands.

"Yes. The plan," said Leo. "The plan is an excellent one that is completely fool-proof. The plan is ingenious and magnificent." He rubbed his hands together eagerly. "So, what's the plan?"

Piper sighed wearily and turned to the younger girl. "Hazel," she started, "would you mind telling us the Romans' weak spot? So we at least know where to start?"

"Hmm... Our pride?" Hazel wondered, tiredly turning sideways onto her back and closing her eyes in thought. "I don't really know. Being asked to list our weak points is sort of embarrassing and extremely demeaning, to be completely honest."

Piper nodded as if she understood. "Alright, fine," she said, stretching backwards so that she now knelt on her legs. "Never mind." Suddenly, Piper snapped her fingers, an idea having occurred to her. "What if we destroyed the ships they are going to use to get here? That way we they won't have any way of arriving for war at all!"

"Yeah!" Leo exclaimed, getting excited. "And I can totally burn the whole fleet down with fire, and watch it burn from a distance on some random cliff. Then turn, walk away, put on some random back-pocket sunglasses, and let the Romans explode behind me."

"First of all, the part with the exploding Romans kind of hurt me," Hazel told him. "Second, where on earth will you get fire?"

Leo grinned, opening his palm for her. "Check this out," he said, and a small flame erupted.

Hazel was impressed. "Wow," she said. "So, is that like a Greek thing or something? Is it on sale somewhere?"

"It's more of a Hephaestus thing," Leo replied with s self-satisfied smirk, shaking out his hand.

"Well, I can do some cool tricks as well," Hazel replied. She gingerly scooped her fingers into the sand and came out with a small diamond the size of a fingernail. She frowned.

"Usually I can find larger," she commented. Leo didn't really care. He took the diamond and inspected it, holding it close to his eye.

"I'm so keeping this," he decided, slipping it into his pocket. "But your power still isn't as cool as mine."

"It's _so _better," Hazel told him, rolling her eyes at him.

"And what about mine?" Piper asked, not wanting to be left out. "Persuasion is pretty awesome. Like, I can order you guys to jump off a cliff or something and you'd do it."

"But you wouldn't, that's the thing," Leo explained. "You're Piper. A pacifist. Most of the time."

"Well, my powers have nothing to do with violence," Hazel said. "Unlike _yours, _Leo."

Leo summoned a small flame and pretended to throw it at Hazel. She expertly rolled out of the way and got to her feet, much too casually to be a fumble or mistake.

"Missed," she informed him.

"Bluff," Leo told her with a shrug.

"Guys, can we not argue now?" Piper realized, snapping back to the present. "We need to focus. We need a plan."

"We have one," Leo replied, tossing his fire from hand to hand before it died out mid-air. "Destroy the ships. Simple."

"That won't work," said a voice coming from the woods. Hazel grabbed her sword, Leo summoned a small flame, and Piper assumed a karate stance she hoped didn't look ridiculous. Chime flew up into the forest and the three of them heard something pecking another.

Percy Jackson stumbled into view, an automaton bird biting at his head. He was desperately trying to shoo it off, Annabeth helping but keeping her distance at the same time. She glanced around worriedly, as if she were afraid more of them would pop out of the wood.

Hazel, Leo and Piper watched them awkwardly stumble out of the forest for a while (Piper hated to find it slightly amusing) until Leo called—smiling a bit as well—"Chime! They're okay! You can stop trying to kill them now."

Chime rapped Percy on the head one last time for good measure before flying back onto Piper's outstretched hand. "What on earth are you doing here?" she demanded, trying to make herself look more irritated and intimidating by placing her other hand on her hip.

"We were just about to ask you the same thing," Percy replied, trying to untangle his now-messy black hair. "Dang it, that thing pecks hard."

Annabeth took a step forward. "What were you just talking about?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips (and Piper found she pulled the intimidating/irritated look a whole lot better than she did). "Romans? Weak-spots? _Destroying_? It sounds like you were mentioning a—"

"War?" Hazel finished. She put away her weapon, taking a few steps forward "What? No! Of course not! We're all friends here. Good friends! All friends! Good old… friends!" She smiled a cheesy smile.

Piper could tell she didn't like the way that sentence was finished.

Piper sighed. "There's no point trying to lie to a daughter of Athena," she said. "Annabeth, Percy—you might want to sit down. This is a long story."

"What? No way," Leo objected, slicing his open palms through the air as if he could cut off Piper's sentence by doing so. "We can't just go around telling people about this! The more know the better the chance someone will let something slip!"

"They can help us," Piper countered slowly, trying to make her voice hushed so that no one else could overhear their argument (though the others were standing right beside them). "Have you heard of their stories? These 'people' legendary."

"We are," Percy added with a self-satisfied grin.

"They're like walking/talking history books."

"Our names will be spoken throughout all nations for all of thy ages," Percy continued, staring off into the distance as if he could already see it coming.

"Leo, if we have to tell anyone else about all of this it has to be them. They're demigod famous, with monsters fearing their very name—"

"—Ahem," interrupted Annabeth, clearing her throat purposefully. "You may now stop. It's not good for his ego." She jabbed her thumb toward Percy, who was trying to explain his entire life's story to a very uninterested Hazel, and paused. "Although it is all _very _true," she added.

"Plus," Piper continued to Leo, dropping the hush-hush tone, "they're a lot more skilled at sword-play than we are. If we refuse to explain we might as well already become sliced up demigod-kebab."

Percy and Annabeth grinned at each other knowingly. "I'm so proud of myself," Percy decided, placing a hand over his heart.

Leo glanced at them, then back at Piper. "Alright," he decided. "We'll tell them." Then he turned to Annabeth and Percy. "But just for the record, you wouldn't actually attack us... would you?"

Percy pretended to think about it. "Actually, the demigod-kebab incident is a pretty funny story," he started. "It all started on a day that was not considered well for many people—including my opponent. We were dueling very hardcore to the death, when—"

"Not now, Perce," Annabeth interrupted, laying a hand on his shoulder. "We need to listen to them right now, not you."

They sat down on the sand while the other three tried to explain what was going on to them. Percy just sat there looking worried and Annabeth was thinking the entire time.

"Huh," she said once the story was finished. "Well, I should have seen this coming." She got up to her feet, dusting off her jeans. "We can't warn camp, can we?"

Hazel, Leo and Piper shook their heads in unison.

"But when you first showed up, you said something about destroying the warships not working," Piper remembered. "Why was that?"

"Destroying the warships could be taken the wrong way and seen as another declaration of war," Annabeth explained. "We have to be cautious. The only way we can prevent this whole thing—how I see it anyway—is by convincing the leaders to abort."

"There's a problem," said Hazel, drawing pictures in the sand with her foot. "There's absolutely no way we can convince Octavian to abandon this mission."

"Of course there is," Annabeth said, glancing at Piper. "She's got charmspeak."

Piper kicked the sand sullenly, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "And I didn't even have the pleasure of bringing it up by surprise," she muttered to herself. "I was actually looking forward to that." She adopted a fake voice. "'Hey, everyone, guess what powers I have? Charm-freaking-flipping-speak!'"

"But there's another problem," Percy mentioned, raising a finger as if now were his turn to speak and was not having anyone interrupt. "We have no way of getting to California. Remember how the flying chariot is being fixed because of the crash?"

Annabeth nodded, deep in thought. Then she snapped her fingers, an idea overcoming her. "I've got it," she announced, smiling triumphantly. "And it's good."

**-o-O-o-**

They found the boy sitting in the Hades cabin sullenly, reading a thick textbook about Romans.

"Hello," Nico greeted them as they walked in. "How may I help you?"

Piper looked around and instantly got the creeps. It was all dark and spooky and... small. Green fire illuminated the room, casting a dim light that made everything look ominous. She shivered unintentionally and was pretty sure Leo did as well, although the others seemed fine—especially Hazel.

"We need help," Annabeth announced, stopping halfway across the room.

Nico scanned his eyes over the other visitors. "Oh, look," he said, his gaze falling upon Hazel as if he were not at all surprised. "A Roman. Hello, Hazel. Do you happen to be planning a war against the Greeks any time soon?"

Hazel crossed her arms. "What are you doing here, Nico?" she demanded.

The boy sighed and got to his feet. "The first month I was away visiting my dad in the Underworld," he explained. "I didn't know about the Romans' deceleration of war until both Marcy and Lucas arrived, and by that point it was too late. I stayed at Camp Jupiter, for I knew if the Romans spotted me here they'd wonder what was going on. Now that they're coming I saw no reason to remain incognito and came. Obviously if Marcy, Lucas, Thomas, Christine or you caught sight of me you'd assume I was sent here to check things out. Nobody would ask questions because of my 'dark' personality, which actually really hurt my feelings when Octavian said it."

"But how did you get here?" Percy asked. "This... Camp Jupiter place is across the country. Not half-way, like they say in the movies, but _all _the way. Like, fifty states away away—"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Nico interrupted, waving him away. "I shadow-traveled here." He adopted a fake smirk. "What, you thought I just hopped on the next flight here and twiddled my thumbs on the plane, hoping I wouldn't be struck by lightning?" He laughed softly, shaking his head sadly as if he wished it were that simple. "I don't think so."

There was a pause, and then he and Percy shivered unintentionally, muttering in unison, "Planes... blech."

"But you could have told _me, _Nico," Hazel protested, sounding hurt. "I'm your sister."

"Woah," said Percy. "Hold the phone. Nico, you have _another _sister? Are you guys, like, twins or something? You don't look a lot alike. First of all, Nico's deathly white and Hazel's deathly black... wow I just sounded so racist."

Annabeth nudged him. "She's a daughter of Pluto, Percy, it became obvious after a while," she muttered to him.

"Anyway," Nico continued, "my guess is that you need me to shadow-travel all five of you across America to California." He considered it, scanning their faces and running a hand through his thick black hair. "I guess I could do it if we went in groups. But you'd have to get back another way. I'd have to take a real long power-nap afterwards, or at least some cool-down time before shadow-traveling again."

"Thank you so much, Nico," said Annabeth. "Your help is really appreciated."

The group stood there awkwardly.

"So, are we going now, or are we waiting until a certain time?" Nico wondered.

"I guess we could go now," said Piper.

"The sooner the better, as they say," added Percy.

"I suppose," replied Annabeth. She and Percy volunteered to stay behind as the second group while the others shadow-traveled first.

Nico grabbed Hazel's hand, and she recoiled slightly at his touch, but didn't make a move to walk away. She was obviously still upset with his secrecy. Leo grabbed Piper's and Hazel's hand, Chime perched on Hazel's shoulder. She twittered nervously, having no idea what was going on.

"You might feel the impulse to throw up afterwards," Nico warned his passengers. "This is completely natural."

Piper swallowed. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea—"

The shadows peeled off the wall and rushed in toward them, swallowing the group whole. Piper shrieked and tried to pull away, but Leo held her hand tightly and she couldn't. The next thing she knew she was falling to the ground, puking her lungs out. She stayed there for what felt like the longest time, until she had nothing else to throw up. She stood. They were standing on the top of a hill, overlooking some camp in the distance. Nico was already gone, left to fetch Percy and Annabeth.

"Camp Jupiter," Hazel introduced them, Chime fluttering down to the grass and pecking at the ground. "We're on the Oakland hills right now. Over there are the Barracks, then Via Principala, and over there is Temple Hill, and—"

Leo interrupted by retching, and Hazel decided to stop.

Nico reappeared with Percy and Annabeth in tow. They both looked slightly sick, but neither of them threw up as if they'd shadow-traveled before.

"Now we have to find Reyna, Jason and Octavian," Hazel said. "We have tons of campers and there's a lot of confusion right now so as long as you don't do anything to attract attention to yourself you should be okay. C'mon."

Hazel bounded down the hill and the Greeks followed her, walking straight into enemy territory and possibly toward their impending deaths.

* * *

**Yeah, sorry if the jokes at the beginning sucked. I was in a bad-joke mood. **

**Also, I apologize if Annabeth was being OOC at the beginning. It was for the greater good of the trying-to-be-funny-but-not-actually god, What's-His/Her-Name. Nico was some sort of depressed freak in the first draft of this chapter, so I tried to change that and make it slightly more Nico-ish. Did it work?**

**Anyway, I'm SUPER excited because this story is four reviews away from reaching my other story's reviews (MODP; and doing this while seven chapters behind it as well!), and thirty-one reviews away from 300.**

**Okay, so if you have not yet seen the final episode of Gravity Falls and plan to do so, skip this next paragraph because it's just my furious spoiler rant (I watched it yesterday). If you have never seen Gravity Falls and do not really care for the show, you may skip it as well and go directly to the review box below. But if you _have _and are just as mad/angry/furious as I am, you may read this.**

**Warning: Major spoilers for the last episode of Gravity Falls.**

**-o-O-o-**

_**ARGH! **_**What? How could they do this to us? I thought the Dreamscapers cliffhanger was bad but this is just HORRIBLE! Who would do this to a human being? This is torture! This should be against the law! (Of course, I have my experience with cliffhangers from Rick, but this is still pretty bad.) I HATE YOU, ALEX, I HATE YOU! WHY WOULD YOU MAKE US WAIT UNTIL SEASON TWO TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE BLEEPING HECK GRUNKLE STAN WAS DOING!? I mean, I had read theories that Old Man McGucket had written the THREE journals—but I had never really believed them—and stories where Stan wrote them, which I thought was possible, and I guess it still is. Maybe he wrote them when he was young and they got lost, and now he's trying to recollect them again. It works! Or maybe they'll introduce who actually wrote the books in season two. Maybe there's a book four. OMG MAYBE THERE'S A BOOK FOUR! And then there's another question; WHAT ABOUT BILL!? And what power does Stan want to unlock? WHY DOES HE WANT TO UNLOCK THE POWER!? And Dipper and Mable... OH, I THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO BE GONE FOREVER! I WAS SO SAD! _(I HATE YOU ALEX!) _I thought the episode would end with Stan entering the vending machine and then cliffhanger! But this is much better because we have one minute's worth of knowledge more. Like STAN HAS ALL THREE BOOKS WHAT WILL HE DO WITH THE POWER!? And we all knew Stan was not to be trusted (the backwards message in the theme song; any Faller would know this info!), but why? WHY THIS? I CAN NO LONGER TRUST YOU, STAN! And the end... oh, the end... "Here we go" then blackness!? WHAT? WHATWHATWHATWHATWHAT! **

_**AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_

**-o-O-o-**

**I'm sorry, but I needed to do that.**

**So review! And RAGE if you saw the episode and was RAGED as well.**


	37. Getting the Group Together (part 2)

**Hello! So sorry I haven't updated in a while, but guess what?**

**I got sick.**

**So that left me able to do absolutely _nothing__,_ which was absolutely WONDERFUL (sarcasm). I had so much fun sitting in bed and fuming at the wall in front of me, unable to do anything more than sleep, read, and watch reruns of my sister's TV shows on an iPod (which doesn't help your eyes one bit). ****Fortunately for you guys I got over the worse bits and am back on my feet, ready to roll!**

**And you know what the beautiful news is? (I still might be sick.)**

**So without further ado, I welcome you part two! **

**(But first a short something I know no one will read anyway because no one reads ANs anyway so I doubt there is anyone out there who knows what I'm saying right now.)**

**(In the reviews some people mentioned Percy was OOC, and someone else noticed that Hazel would have recognized Leo. Well, I'll try to fix the Hazel/Leo thing, but the Percy thing you'll just have to live through. [I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Hazel/Sammy/Leo, so that is why it is not mentioned. I am _SO_ forgetful, I'm super sorry.] But it won't be fixed in this chapter because there was absolutely nowhere to put it in, but it will be somewhere, I promise. [Oh, and Hazel isn't having her flashbacks in this story. It would become too repetitive if she did.])**

* * *

**Leo**

Leo had plenty of people who didn't like him. His Aunt Rosa. Most of his family members. All of his elementary teachers. But he had never seen such a large group of them join together to form—get this—a _war _against him.

Too many, he decided as they slipped past full-armour bearing Romans on their way to wherever Hazel thought the praetors would be.

They rounded a corner and Hazel automatically backed them against the wall again. "Back, back, back!" she ordered, trying to herd the others the way they came.

"What? Why?" Percy asked, trying to look past her. "Is it Octavian? Will he see you and recognize that you're not supposed to be here?"

"No," Hazel replied, still trying to get the Greeks away. "Even worse. My friend—"

"Hey, Hazel," said Frank, coming up to meet them. He frowned at the others. "Who are they?"

"…Friends," she came up with. "Frank, these are some… new arrivals I've been put in charge of showing around even though they haven't selected a cohort yet because of the battle preparations and whatnot." She cleared her throat and tried not to make eye-contact.

Taking advantage of the situation, Annabeth asked, "Do you know where the praetors are?"

"Yeah, actually," Frank told them, looking slightly confused about the whole thing. "I saw them discussing something way over back. But Octavian's with them."

Piper frowned. "How long do you think that'll last?" she asked.

"Better question," Hazel followed up. "How was he acting?"

Frank considered it. "Annoying, arrogant, big headed—the usual huge ego'd self he is."

Hazel nodded. "So Reyna and Jason won't be with him long," she concluded. She walked up to Frank and rested a hand on his arm because she couldn't reach his shoulder without looking weird. "Frank, we need to talk to them about something."

"But Hazel, what are you doing here anyway?" Frank asked as if it just occurred to him. "You're supposed to be at the Greek camp."

"We'll explain it later," she told him. "Now lead the way. Also, Percy, I think I made it clear enough while we were talking that he's a friend. You can put your sword away."

Percy frowned, but took out the cap of a pen and pressed it to the blade, and the whole thing shrank into a ballpoint pen.

Leo turned away, hands in his pockets. "I'm not even going to ask," he said.

**-o-O-o-**

They reached the area Frank told them he had seen the praetors.

"They're not here," he announced stupidly.

"No one's here," Piper said.

"Ah, well," said Leo casually, kicking a nearby rock across the clearing. "Guess it's time to go back to Camp Half-Blood. Hopefully we can get there with enough time to spare so that I can write my will and last testament."

Even Chime scowled at him by biting his ear.

Suddenly, though, a large and angry dog emerged from the shadows of a nearby building. Its eyes blazed red and it seemed to be made of pure gold. A silver one walked out behind it, both snarling and ready to attack.

"Uh oh," said Percy.

The gold one pounced on the nearest demigod in the group—who happened to be Leo. He fell backwards, and both he and the dog skidded across the cobbled ground at least five feet. Piper yelled out his name.

"Get it off!" Leo wheezed. Piper tried to, but the thing snarled at her and she shrieked, backing away. Percy and Annabeth both heaved out their blades, but they seemed hesitant to kill a metal dog.

"Aurum! Argentum! Get off!"

The gold dog whined as if it were complaining, but jumped to attention and trotted back to the speaker, who already had the silver hound lying at her feet. "Camp Half-Blood, you say," Reyna said, Jason standing behind her with crossed arms.

"No," blurted Percy stupidly, not realizing that these were the people they were looking for. "We're not Greeks. Not at all. Who made you think that? Like, I know you probably don't recognize me anyway, but—"

"Percy?" Annabeth whispered to him. "Shut up." She had recognized who Reyna was.

"Oh, I recognize you just fine, Perseus Jackson," Reyna replied, stroking the head of Argentum calmly (though Leo wasn't sure how long that would last). "Circe, I believe? But that does not matter now. Our two camps are about to go to war with each other, and as praetor of Rome I cannot allow that to happen."

"Technically, you're only 50% the praetor of Rome," Jason amended. Reyna turned to glare at him.

"Do we really have to have this conversation here?" she demanded. She turned back to the others. "Nico," she noticed easily. "How nice to have you back. And I see Hazel and Frank have joined your club."

"Yeah," said Frank. "Although I still have no idea what is going on."

"To the other two I do not recognize," Reyna continued, speaking to Piper and Leo, "I am Reyna, daughter of Bellona, and this is my boyfr—partner, Jason Grace. We need your help."

"Piper and Leo," Leo introduced with a wink. "But you can call me SUPREME COMMANDER OF AWESOME!" He turned to Piper. "Was that too much? Was yelling a slight over-action?"

Piper considered this. "Slightly," she decided.

"Yeah, well, we need your help too," said Annabeth. "You two are the head bosses around here. We need you to abort."

Jason sighed. "And you ask us to do that now, a few days before the attack? We never had a reign on the situation anyway. Octavian has been leading this entire camp the whole way... although technically we were the ones who stalked your camp for a week—"

"Jason?" Reyna whispered to him. "Shut up."

"So stopping won't work," said Percy, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "What about sabotaging?"

"We already talked about this," said Annabeth tiredly. "Sabotage would just seem like another declaration of war."

"Not if we did it remotely," said Nico, speaking up for the first time and surprising everyone. "Make it look like a ship malfunction by quietly hot-wiring the controls and magic."

"...That _could _work," Annabeth decided, thinking it through.

"We should split up in teams," continued Nico. "Jason and Reyna can call on a last-minute war meeting with the entire camp and take Hazel and Piper with them. Piper is a charmspeaker—she can pretend to be a prisoner of Hazel, one of the five sent to CHB—and distract the Romans while the others quietly dismantle the flying warships."

Piper seemed stunned. "What… how do you know that?" she spluttered, referring to his comment about her charmspeak. "Why does everyone know that!?"

"Doesn't matter," Annabeth interrupted. "The sabotagers can split up into other groups—Percy and I will take a few while Nico and Leo can another. Leo and I can quietly dismantle the ships' commands and make it so that they can't take off while Percy and Nico watch our backs."

"And me?" Frank asked.

"Oh." Annabeth hadn't realized he had wanted to become part of the group, only assuming that he had tagged along to show them where he had seen Jason and Reyna go off. "You can go with Nico and Leo."

Chime twittered, as if asking, _And me?_

"...We'll take Chime for ourselves," she decided. Chime flew down onto her shoulder and pecked at her blonde hair, deciding whether or not she was an enemy or a friend. In the end she decided she was the latter and snuggled up against her ear.

"We should probably also explain the prophecy," Leo added. Annabeth nodded and allowed for him and Piper to show their findings.

Reyna seemed intrigued. "Very interesting," she decided. "I suppose you aren't a complete loss after all."

Leo had no idea how to respond to that. "Uh, thanks," he said.

"The attack is in a few days," said Reyna, "but we can start the dismantling now. Later on in the week more and more people will be milling around the ships, so it will be much more difficult. Plus, we leave 24 hours earlier to get where we need to be, so we're really only here three more days anyway."

"Anyway," added Jason, "the warships are in the Field of Mars. There are half a dozen of them, so fifty campers in each. They are relatively small for warships, but as we are crossing the entire USA stealth was required."

"Alright," said Annabeth. "We'll wait here for Jason and Reyna to call on a camp meeting. Hazel and Piper, stay here for the moment. The rest of us will get ready."

The praetors nodded and left, Reyna's metal hounds following close behind. Percy and Annabeth left with Chime to discuss their strategies, while Hazel went off with Nico to talk about kid-of-the-death-god things. Frank tagged along because he had nothing else to do.

Which left Piper and Leo.

"Wow," Piper said after a fulfilling awkward silence was pronounced. "The prophecy is finally happening."

"Yeah," Leo replied, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Piper said nothing for a while, and then admitted, "Leo, I'm scared."

"What for?" he asked.

She hesitated, tried to begin softly, but then nearly yelled in frustration, "I have to distract a bunch of bloodthirsty Romans! I have no idea what to say! What if I'm not convincing enough and they figure out the trick and we're discovered and thrown in prison and Camp Half-Blood is raided, all because I couldn't hold the attention of a bunch of Romans!?" She stopped to take in a deep breath.

Leo tried to smile reassuringly. "You'll be fine," he told her.

Piper was about to yell something else, but she stopped herself, calming down a bit. She conceded in simply nodding, as well as slipping her hand into Leo's. He really hoped he wasn't blushing.

"Okay, Piper." Hazel had come back. "Because you're going to be a 'prisoner' we decided you should have your hands bound. I hope this won't be awkward to tie you up, but I won't make the bonds tight, I swear."

Piper glanced at Leo nervously and decided, "Okay." Piper held her arms out in front of her, wrists intersecting, and Hazel wrapped the coil around them twice, tying it off. Piper tested its strength. She could slip her hands out if need be.

Hazel wandered off and the praetors returned, minus the gold and silver dogs. "Ready, Hazel and Piper?" she called.

"Wait, Reyna," interrupted Annabeth just before they were about to head off, running up to meet her. "Where exactly is the Field of Mars?"

Reyna glared at her for a moment (maybe remembering dark 'Circe' memories?) but told her, "Just north of here. We're in the Via Principala right now, so all you have to do to get out is go through the south entrance, then walk this way…" She trailed off with her instructions.

Piper glanced at Leo again. "Worried?" she asked him.

He shrugged. "I've got fire and screwdrivers by my side," he joked, forcing a grin. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"Piper!" Hazel called. "Come on!"

"Coming!" Piper shouted back, turning to Leo again. "I hope this isn't the last time I see you alive."

"Same," he replied.

Then Piper leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Good luck," she told him.

"Piper!" Hazel called again. "We're waiting for you!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," she yelled. She looked at Leo once more. "Bye," she said. "Hope you don't die."

"Hope you don't die," Leo replied awkwardly, cheeks a bright shade of red. Piper walked back toward Reyna and Hazel and they took off to whichever death awaited them.

Percy walked up to Leo and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry," he said. "We're the good guys. We _can't_ die."

Leo sighed. "I really hope you're right," he decided.

* * *

**EEK PIPER KISSED LEO EVEN IF IT WAS ONLY ON THE CHEEK AND TOTALLY SISTERLY EEK EEK EEK EEK!**

**Anyway, I'm SUPER excited because a week ago they announced the making of an Artemis Fowl movie. Most of you probably won't know the series and thus don't care, but I'm freaking out right now. They better not mess it up, but the guy who made Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix is writing the script so I think we're okay here.**

**In other news, I recently published a new oneshot. (It's Artemis Fowl so most of you won't be interested.) **

**And we're past MODP for reviews! And at 290! If we get to 300 I'll seriously have a meltdown!**


	38. Sabotage and Capture

**Woo-hoo! Eleven reviews in the last chapter only! Which means we're NOW AT THREE HUNDRED REVIEWS OH MY GODS OH MY GODS!**

**When I first started my story I thought I'd get fifty reviews, total, but now this is my most popular story because I've never, ever, hit the three hundred review mark before. (Some have yet to reach five. hinthint)**

**Disclaimer: Not Rick. If I was I'd probably be working on the fifth book in the HoO series, as apparently HoH is finished and all there is left to do is edit it and print all the copies. (Which will take a while, considering the size of this fandom.)**

**Special dedication to _Donavin_, the three hundredth reviewer! And _The Minun _as well because of his/her idea!**

* * *

**Leo**

"Sabotage Team One arrived at Warship 001, I repeat, Sabotage Team One arrived at—"

"Just short-circuit the wires," Frank told him, feeling quite annoyed with Leo. The first boy just grinned and knelt down next to the controls, picking out a wire-cutter from his Hephaestus-kid belt and snapping off the correct lines. To completely disable everything in the ship it took him around twelve minutes. Frank stood behind him with his bow loaded and ready to shoot in case they met someone, but nobody showed up. Nico patrolled outside, waiting for them.

"Done," Leo announced, standing and dusting his hands against one another. The two boys began towards the door. "Now let's just get to the second ship—"

He and Frank froze just as they were about to leave to find themselves facing half a dozen spearheads pointed at their heads.

"Maybe we can wait," Leo adjusted.

* * *

**Percy**

Annabeth was knelt next to the control panel, cutting what seemed to be random wires in Percy's perspective with her dagger. Percy stood watch, but Annabeth was taking too long and he was beginning to get bored.

"Which ones do you know to cut?" he asked, in reality just wanting to hear the sound of another person speaking.

"I find the ones that connect to the circuits, then follow the commands of what they do. If I lose track of one then I have to start all over again," she replied.

"Why don't you just cut them all?"

She turned and gave him a glare. "If I could do that, don't you think I would have done that by now?"

Chime twittered.

"Whatever," Percy said, running a hand through his hair. He turned back to face the door to find two Romans standing there heaving very deadly looking swords.

"I have no idea how those guys got there," said Annabeth.

Percy pulled the cap off of Riptide and snapped the flat of his blade against the helmet of the first Roman. He crumpled and was unconscious in under five seconds after the fight started. The second guy hesitated, then charged.

Percy dodged the blade then countered the swipe with his own. He struck again, adding a slight flick to his wrist and sending the Roman's sword flying. Percy allowed a small grin to unnerve the other and slapped his blade against the side of his head as well. He fell forward, knocked out cold. Chime landed on his helmet and began to peck the back of his head angrily.

"Are they outside?" Annabeth asked, still cutting wires with her dagger.

Percy was way ahead of her. He ran outside and leaned off of the warship railing outside to find about twenty other Romans, led by Octavian himself.

"Surrender in the name of Rome!" he yelled, brandishing his sword.

"Yeah, sure, in a sec," Annabeth called out, furiously working on the ship's controls.

Octavian frowned, then understood what she was doing. He raised his sword even higher and yelled, "SENETUS ROMANUASSS MAXIUSS!" (Percy had no idea what that meant; probably something like "Rome FTW!") He took a step forward, tripped on a pile of Pegasus poop, and landed face-first on the ground.

"I'm just going to wait," Percy decided.

* * *

**Piper**

Piper yelled out as she was thrown in the cell. As far as she could tell, Hazel, Frank and Leo had been caught as well. Somehow Annabeth and Percy and Nico had evaded capture, or maybe they were on their way of coming. The cell door slammed behind her and she heard the pitter-patter of feet walking away.

She closed her eyes and tried to think back of where things went wrong. Jason and Reyna had introduced Hazel, calling her a hero, and then Hazel gave them a three-minute insight of the Greeks. Then she called Piper up, and when Piper tried charmspeaking… what had happened?

Octavian. That creep ruined the plan. Somehow he could tell it was bewitchment and ordered her imprisonment along with Hazel's. Jason and Reyna were forced to claim they didn't know of their plans if they wanted to stay out of the mess. Piper didn't really blame them.

Afterwards Octavian figured out the rest of the plan and sent a bunch of groups to search the warships. They found Leo and Frank and easily overpowered them, but had no clue what had happened to Nico. Had he sided with the Romans or the Greeks in the end? No way of knowing. Percy and Annabeth had fought, as Piper heard it, and managed to get away with Chime.

Now, because of this, Octavian had fast-forwarded the flight to that very day, meaning CHB would be attacked the following morning. Jason and Reyna were on one of the four ships that now worked, flying over to NYC. A small group of a dozen campers had remained at Camp Jupiter to keep everything organized, guard the four prisoners, and to be there if Percy and Annabeth (and maybe Nico?) returned.

_One day before the Romans reached Camp Half-Blood. One day._ Piper looked around the cell she shared with Hazel to find that she was the same pale colour.

Piper couldn't shake off the feeling that this failure was all her fault. If she had been a bit more distraction-worthy for ten more minutes maybe the others would have been able to disable the remaining four ships. Or at least two of them.

Hazel crawled up to her and patted her shoulder. "It's alright," she reassured her. "We'll be fine."

They heard a door opening from the outside of their cell. It sounded as if there were two people talking to each other.

"So you're new?" one was saying.

"Yep," replied the other. "Got here two weeks ago."

"So how was your trip with Lupa?"

"…Lupa? It was, uh, okay, I guess."

There was a pause, as if the other didn't really believe him.

"That's cool. What cohort are you in?"

"I'm in the, uh… two. Second co-thingy."

"I'm in the second cohort, and I've never seen you around. Are you sure you belong here?"

"…Of course I belong here! Why wouldn't I be here if I didn't belong here?" There was nervous laughter.

Then the sound of a blade being pulled from its sheath and being swung. A yelp and then metal on metal. The fight endured around half a minute, and by the sounds of it it wasn't played nice. Eventually there was a loud crash and a groan, and the girls' cell door opened to reveal Percy, wearing Roman armour and easily re-capping Riptide. He was completely unscathed, as if it were magic.

"That was fun," he decided.

Annabeth showed up with Leo and Frank, Chime fluttering above her head. "We have to leave," she decided, running for the door at the end of the hallway.

"And Nico?" Hazel asked, concerned for her half-brother.

"He went with the Romans," replied Annabeth. "We have to figure out how to follow them."

"They already all left," Percy informed the others as they pushed open the double-doors to reveal the fading sunlight. "So we'll have to find our own method of transport. Any way other than plane would take too long, and six unruly teenagers travelling without adults would bring up a lot of questions in customs."

Piper suddenly remembered something. "We're in California?" she asked.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Why?"

Piper grinned. "Oh, I can get us a ride."

* * *

**SNAP CLIFFHANGER!**

**Even though you guys all now what's Piper thinking of!**

**Review, please. Pretty pretty pretty please.**

**Also, I'm going on a camping trip pretty soon and I won't be able to update then, and afterwards we're taking a family/friends trip to the States (woo hoo!) for another long while, so I honestly don't know when I'll update. I'll try to post the next chapter in between the camping trip and the United States of America trip, and I'll let you know for how long I'll be away for the second one.**

**Peace!**


	39. Rides and Talks

**This is one of the longest times I've gone without updating. One week. Just goes to show how much I spoil you guys.**

**Anyway, I'm right at the intersection of camping and the US to the A trip. So the next time you'll see of me will be in like a week and a half. Sorry about that.**

**This chapter is short, and apologizes for that. Hope you enjoy anyway!**

* * *

**Piper**

"You have a jet," Percy clarified stupidly.

"Yes," said Piper. She had just finished calling the cab company and they were waiting for two taxis to arrive to take them to the airport.

"Who did you say your dad was again?" asked Frank.

Piper sighed wearily. "Tristan McLean, professional actor," she repeated. "Now stop acting so amazed. It's not so amazing!"

Leo grinned. "Yes it is, Piper. Just learn to accept it."

Thirty minutes later the demigods found themselves flying through customs on their way to the plane the McLean family owned. It wasn't a very big plane, but it was luxurious and had an onboard flight assistant that served drinks. (Leo loved that part.)

Annabeth sat in the back seats, jotting down notes every once in a while on a notepad provided to her at the airport. Frank and Hazel started up a normal talk with the flight-assistant while Percy remained in the washroom, claiming that he felt sick. Leo began to read some cook-magazine he found lying around, which left Piper with nothing to do.

"Hey, Pipes," Leo called her over after around fifteen minutes of flying. "Check out this recipe. Strawberries on spicy tacos. It sounds disgusting, but it's actually pretty ingenious."

Piper nodded. "Not as good as it sounds," she told him.

He looked up from the pages. "Tried it before?"

Piper nodded sadly. "My taste buds wilted on the spot," she said. "It was a confliction between sweetness and spiciness. The result was catastrophic."

Leo sighed, setting away the book. "What are we going to do?" he asked tiredly, as if their current situation just hit him. "I mean, when we get there? It's not like anyone except Annabeth over there is trying to figure out something."

Piper looked away. "I don't know. I really don't know." She paused. "Leo, when I was set in charge of distracting the Romans before, I froze. I literally stopped in fear. I was so… so terrified. I don't think I'd be able to do that again."

Leo did something strange. He got up, walked over, and gave Piper a hug. "We'd never ask you to do something that you wouldn't want to do," he said. "Don't worry."

Piper hugged him back. "Thank you, Leo. You're a great friend."

Suddenly the on-board assistant appeared. "Sir, your request for strawberries on tacos is nearly ready—"

"Cancel that," he told her, sitting back in his comfortable recliner once again, and Piper rolled her eyes.

Hazel walked up to them. "Leo, can I speak to you?" she asked. She seemed nervous somehow.

"Sure," he replied. "Let's hear it."

"Uh…" Hazel seemed embarrassed somehow. "_Alone, _actually. This is sort of private—"

"Oh, of course," said Leo. He stood up and the pair walked over to the back of the plane, discussing something severe in hushed tones. Hazel seemed to be explaining a lot, and Leo looked skeptical the entire time. Eventually she got him to return the diamond from earlier that day, which he still had in his pocket. Leo returned, sitting down next to Piper again.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"Something about me being her boyfriend from the 40s," he replied.

Piper nodded, looking away. "In the demigod world, things are _so _overcomplicated," she decided.

"Amen to that," agreed Leo.

* * *

**Well, Hazel explained it. Now what?**

**Anyway, hope you liked it, and see you in, like, almost two weeks.**

**PS: Did anyone see the Blue Moon last night? (A Blue Moon is the second full moon of a calendar month.)**


	40. Turbulence and Storms

***cue the intro music***

**I'm ba-ack! And school has started, so I am sa-ad! But that is oh-kay, because of the chapter to-day!**

**(You have no idea how hard I tried to make that rhyme.)**

**Anyway, just a short story so that you appreciate this chapter a bit more: **

**On my trip I was thinking about this story one night, and how it was coming to an end soon. (NO!) But a problem struck me: planes take only hours to get from coast to coast. Flying warships take one full day. The good guys are going to get there before the Romans, and that is NOT ACCEPTABLE!**

**So this was born! (And be glad, because if not the story would be over in approx. two chapters.)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own HoO**

* * *

**Piper**

_"This is your captain speaking; in the result of an unforeseen event we will be experiencing some minor turbulence. Please remain in your seats until announced safe. Thank you."_

Percy's face paled considerably, his grip on the seat's hand rests tightening so much his knuckles turned white. Piper was surprised the seat survived. "Turbulence?" he asked. "Oh, gods, this isn't good, this isn't good…"

In all the months that she'd (barely) known him, Piper had figured out that Percy wasn't afraid of much. (Mostly because he was indestructible with some sort of ancient curse.) But he seemed seriously terrified of this minor disruption.

His girlfriend patted him on the arm reassuringly. "Don't worry, Perce," she told him, resting her head on his shoulder. "It should be over soon."

"Yeah, it's only some turbulence. Basically just wind flying in a river," Leo helped, waving his hand through the air fluidly. "You like rivers, yes? It's very Poseidon-y."

"Actually, Leo," corrected Annabeth, "the way air flows has nothing to do with water."

They hit a bump and Percy's grip on the hand rest tightened, if it was possible.

"I don't particularly like turbulence either," Hazel added, leaning towards them. "I get seasick easily, and bumpy planes are basically the same thing."

A particular violent jolt hit them and they all jumped in their seats.

"That didn't feel so good," Piper noted.

_"This is your captain speaking,"_ an announcement said. _"Because of the turbulence we're taking a detour towards Texas. This will add about four extra hours to our flight."_

Percy turned so pale he could have been hung up in a science classroom and considered a skeleton. "Four… _hours?"_ he demanded.

"Hey, better than falling out of the sky and falling several thousand feet to our deaths, eh?" Leo said good-naturally, punching his shoulder.

Piper allowed a pause before she leaned close and hissed in his ear, "Leo? Not helping."

_"This is your captain speaking—"_

"Why does he keep repeating that?" Frank wondered quizzically.

_"—we are going to be taking a second detour—"_

"I just wish he would stop giving us bad news," said Hazel.

_"—over towards Canada due to a storm near Texas, which will add roughly five hours to our trip."_

"Typical," Leo said, then thought about it. "I hope Aunt Rosa's garden is ruined," he added.

_"Thank you for your understanding." Click._

"What I don't understand," Percy said, "is why we keep needing to make these detours."

Annabeth snapped her fingers as a thought hit her. "Of course," she said. "Why didn't I realize this earlier?"

"What?" Frank asked.

"...That we're headed straight towards a chocolate waterfall and we have enough time to stop for a minute?" Leo asked hopefully.

"No," Annabeth told him irritably. "The Romans. They're arriving in warships, but they'll be slower because they still need to consider stealth. We _should_ arrive before them, but by now they will know that we escaped. They're trying to stall us."

"But how on earth would they manage to create some turbulence and a storm?" Piper asked.

Annabeth thought. "I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe Jason—"

"I don't think so," Hazel interrupted. "He could create the turbulence but the storm not so much. He's not a god, you know."

"Then maybe it's the warships," said Annabeth. "They have magic, right? They could help him—"

A thought struck Piper so hard she jerked back violently. "No, it's not that," she announced dreadfully. "I know how they're doing it."

They all stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

"The turbulence Jason could manage," she started, closing her eyes and thinking. "But the storm? No."

"Yes, we know this," said Annabeth. "Keep going."

"…Maybe the storm _isn't _a storm," Piper continued. She chewed on her bottom lip nervously, waiting for the others' reaction.

"What do you mean?" Frank asked.

"Well… the pilot is 100% mortal, right?" she asked. "And so is the co-pilot. What if something _not _a storm came our way and they saw it as one?"

Annabeth realized what she was trying to hint. "Oh, no," she said, paling almost as much as Percy. "No, no, no." Despite the pilot's warning, she unbuckled her seat belt and stood, running over to a large window and drawing back the blinds. The others joined her.

Flying towards them at incredibly high speeds were group of five sleek black panthers with wings, with incredibly sharp talons and beaks. On their backs they each held a Roman in full body armour and bearing weapons. And although they couldn't hear them, it was obvious the leading Roman had shouted, "Surrender in the name of Rome!"

"Uh oh," said Piper.

* * *

**Dang, cliffhanger alert! (And the chapter is short, but school just started and I'm growing lazy again.) **

**Anyway, I tried finding a flying monster that wasn't already used in the series, but got nothing. So I chose the gryphon just because it's easy, it's agreeable, and they can be tamed by humans if born and raised in custody because they aren't the out-for-intentional-blood kinds of monsters; they're the attack-demigods-because-they're-meat-and-they-are- carnivores type. And technically the gryphons haven't even been introduced yet, because they star in the SoN.**

**I haven't done this for a while, so I'll do it now.**

**-o-O-o-**

**Kupkake:** Well, usually the inspiration isn't actually inspiration; I get the story idea, and before I write the first chapter I take out a pencil (because pens are useless because they can't erase) and a sheet of lined paper, and list everything that's going to happen in the story by chapters, so writer's block can't happen, because from beginning to end I know how it'll be. Sometimes I add a chapter or two that weren't planned, just because the thought struck me. But if I had to pick ONE inspiration, it would probably be my lovely readers. COOKIES! (::) (::) (::)

**Angel of Darkness will get you: **I WAS at the east coast (not New York, if you're wondering, though), and the trip was 12 hours, seeing as my parents decided to conserve money and DRIVE there. It was torture, mostly because my sister was annoying half the trip.

**PANDORASBOX1706:** I can't say… The romance of this story (a.k.a. Leo and Piper) is a secret! (Although Jason and Reyna are together… sorry Jasper fans.)

**awesomeness:** He does! That's how he and Annabeth got away! (I remembered that bit! Yes! [The original plan was that Nico busted them out of prison… but I like it this way better.])

**I am Haylee daughter of Hades:** Strawberries on tacos are a thing? I thought I made that up! (Googling it right now.)

**HaileeOfHermes0330:** You were away for a month? How cool is that!? Hope you had fun wherever you went!

**fantasy137:** Maybe the bunker thing at the end… I haven't really thought of that. And, yes, Hazel still has the curse and the flashbacks.

**-o-O-o-**

**Anyway, thank you for all the reviews, and to everyone who wished me fun on my trip! And sorry that most of this story was ANs.**

**Cheerio!**


	41. Gold and 'Mortals'

**Ready for this chapter? I know I am!**

**Disclaimer: *speaking nonchalantly, pretending to be cool) You know. The ushe. (I have no idea how to spell the abbreviation of 'usual')**

**And guess what? HoH comes out in a month! We can officially start freaking out and prepare ourselves for an even worse cliffhanger! Yay! *quietly turns back and sobs into hands***

* * *

**Piper**

"How on earth did they do that?" Piper demanded. "Train the gryphons, I mean. They're monsters. They can't be tamed."

Hazel winced. "Actually..." she started, then stopped as if taking back what she said.

"And?" Annabeth prodded.

She sighed. "It's a new experiment we Romans have been trying out," Hazel admitted. "We breed some gryphons in the safety of camp and train them to be sort of like our replacement of flying horses. The first few tries didn't go so well, and I think someone lost a finger."

"Yeah, cool, whatever," Percy interrupted. "Our main problem are the mortals. We need to get them to safety."

"Where?" Leo asked. "We're three thousand feet in the air if you haven't noticed, and no square meter of this place is currently qualified as 'safe'."

"Not safety; just out of sight," Annabeth decided. "The Romans won't kill them." She turned to Hazel. "Will they?"

"We wouldn't," Frank replied for her. "But maybe the Mars campers would..."

There were five loud thumps on the plane roof as the gryphons landed. They heard the co-pilot in the controls room ask, "What was that?"

"We need a distraction," Hazel decided. "What do gryphons like?"

"Gold," Annabeth replied almost immediately. "Or anything that looks like gold. We can drive them away with that."

"We have some valuable things on the plane," Piper announced. "Gold? I'm not so sure, but I could double-check."

Annabeth nodded. "Anything shiny should be all right," she told her. "So here's the plan—"

She was interrupted by a knock on the plane door. "The Romans," she announced, glancing behind her shoulder. She turned back to their small group. "Piper needs to go get the valuables; someone else to stay with the mortals in the control room and defend them if something goes wrong."

"I can do that," Hazel and Frank volunteered at the same time.

"Percy and I, as the best fighters, should go and keep them busy while Piper gets ready. Sorry, Leo, you're coming with us."

"Shoot," he cursed.

"But they'll be coming inside, right?" Percy made sure. "We won't have to fight on the roof. Because if we do, I'll be fine with helping Piper gather shiny things and—"

A loud hissing sound interrupted him, and Annabeth yelled, "Grab on to something!" The airplane door opened if just for a second, and three Romans jumped in before the wind pulled it shut again.

"Whoa!" one of them exclaimed, looking around admirably. "Sweet ship!"

"Piper, go!" Annabeth shouted, drawing her blade. Without being told, Hazel and Frank ran over to the control room to the mortals. Percy unsheathed Riptide, pulling off the cap and holding it in his free hand. Leo looked around for some sort of weapon he could use, eventually deciding on a seat cushion. Piper scrambled over to the back room, the door shutting behind her.

The first Roman struck towards Percy, stabbing towards his center, but the Greek twisted and the blade struck his arm instead. Percy winced slightly but remained unscratched. He faked a move towards the left and instead swung to the right, hitting the Roman in the side and forcing him to his knees. Percy thrust the heel of his blade into the Roman's chin, knocking his head back against the plane wall and rendering him unconscious. Annabeth was fighting the other two at the same time, keeping them busy until her boyfriend could lend her a hand.

"You know what, Leo?" she told him, her breath a little more paced. "I think we're okay. Go help Piper."

Leo was more than happy to oblige.

He found her in the back room, bringing over some expensive silver cutlery on a gold-plated tray to the front. "Need help?" he asked.

"Wouldn't help," she replied casually. Leo walked over to a small blue felt box and opened it to find ring encrusted with three legit green emeralds.

"How rich are you guys?" he asked, closing the lid and tossing the box to Piper.

"I don't know," she replied, catching it and dropping it next to the tray. "Dad never really spoke about it. He gave up a lot of expensive stuff to charities and whatever."

"Don't you mean 'donate'?"

Piper frowned. "All right, don't get all spirity-do-good with me here, Leo," she retorted. "It'll be too weird coming from your mouth."

He pretended to be insulted. "I can be spirity-do-good you know," he told her.

Piper scoffed. "Sure," she replied sarcastically, making a point of rolling her eyes.

The door opened. "Oh, thanks for coming to help us—" she started, but stopped. It was not one of their friends at the doorway.

"Hello," said the Roman. Unlike the other four, she was a girl, maybe around nineteen. She only wore a breastplate and some armour to cover her shins, so she must have been feeling pretty confident about this battle. "I'm Gwen. What's up?"

Instead of replying, Leo snatched his seat cushion from the floor and set it on fire, hurling it at her. She obviously wasn't prepared for this attack, and her sword barely managed to slice it in half. The flames died.

"Whoa," she said, blinking a few times. "That was unexpected."

"Don't tell me we have to fight you now," Piper said.

Gwen spun the sword around in a circle. "Probably," she admitted, aiming it at their throats as if preparing to thrust the blade into their necks.

* * *

**Hazel**

Hazel and Frank weren't doing so good at keeping the mortals busy.

"Oh, look at that cloud!" Hazel exclaimed, pointing. "Doesn't it look like a…" She faltered for a second. "It totally resembles a… the cloud seriously reminds me of a…" She coughed lightly. "What does it look like, Frank?"

"Hmm... a duck," he decided.

"More like a platypus to me," the female onboard attendant decided. "But why aren't you over with your rich friend, chatting about teenager things? I would _love _to have a rich friend."

Hazel shrugged. "We got bored—"

Someone shouted at the back of the plane.

The pilot steered his eyes upwards to the review mirror to see Hazel's and Frank's faces. "What was that?" he asked them.

Hazel scoffed. "Oh, I don't know," she said, desperately trying to remember how not to look like she was acting. "Probably the girls back there, taking about guys or something. You know how dramatic they can be—"

Another shout, followed by the sound of metal clashing on metal.

"Something probably just fell," Hazel added quickly. "I'll go check on it. Frank, stay here."

_What? _he mouthed at her.

_Stay, _she mouthed back.

_No._

_Frank. Stay._

_"Why do I have to stay with the mortals?"_ he asked quietly.

_"Because someone needs to keep an eye on them," _Hazel hissed back.

_"No."_

_"Frank, I'm warning you—"_

_"I won't do it."_

"Uh, what are you guys talking about back there?" the co-pilot asked.

"Nothing," Hazel replied at the same time Frank replied, "Clowns."

The attendant turned in her seat to face them. "That's interesting," she said. "I was sure you guys called us mortals."

Hazel laughed self-consciously. "What? Ha ha ha. You're hilarious. Frank, stay here."

Then before he could reply she darted behind the curtain to the other room.

* * *

**Well, I hope Frazel wasn't so OOC. I'm pretty sure they were. Ah well.**

**Now please! There's this video on YouTube, and you aren't a true PJO/HoO fan unless you've seen it! (I watched it, and cried. After a while I got over it and watched it again. I cried again. I'm still crying.) It's called _"PJO [let's see how far we've come]"_ by _kelso895. _****And there's another one by the same artist but different YouTube account; _"_**_**C'mon - Viria's tribute to Percy Jackson"**_** by _Sam theGreat._**** Watch both of them and mention them in your review so that I can fangirl/guy with you!**


	42. Same Sides and Probatio

**Hello, people!**

**I am here! Today! Yay!**

* * *

**Piper**

Leo's fingers caught flame lightly, small tendrils of smoke curling upwards. Gwen grinned, the penny finally having dropped.

"Oh, I get it," she said. "But I wouldn't recommend that if I were you. This whole plane could spontaneously catch on fire and plummet, killing all of you along with the three innocent mortals, while we get away on our gryphons safely. And technically our missions requirements will be fulfilled. You'll just be helping _us_."

Leo made no move to back down, but Piper placed the back of her hand on his chest. "Leo," she warned quietly. Scowling, he brushed his hands onto his shirt to douse the flames.

Piper took a threatening step forward. "What is it you want?" she demanded forcefully. "Kill, kidnap, or slow down?"

Gwen shrugged. "I dunno. They never really specified. Although Octavian would have wanted the first or second, I think the praetors will want the third. So that's what I'm doing."

"Wait," Leo interrupted, a thought occurring. "You support Jason and Reyna?"

Gwen narrowed her eyes. "What is it you're trying?" she asked him, though she couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Leo raised his hands slightly as if to prove his surrender. "Nothing!" he reassured her. "Reyna and Jason are actually with us."

Gwen stared at him hard for a few moments, then sighed and lowered her weapon. "Either you're the best liar I've ever encountered, or you're telling the truth," she said. "When Octavian announced a siege, I was technically on his side. Everyone was. We thought he was so…" She searched for the right word. "…_Right,_ and Jason and Reyna were wrong for doubting him."

"And?" Piper prodded.

"And… well, I eventually realized that the praetors were the right ones, and so did a few others, but Octavian still held majority," she continued.

"So we're on the same side!" Leo exclaimed, clapping his hands together once. "This is great news! So here's the plan; you go back to the warship and tell them that you killed us all sneaky-like, and the mortals never noticed so they kept going to New York, and we arrive and in the nick of time we save the day real awesome-like, and—"

Gwen sighed sadly. "I'm afraid that won't be happening," she told them quietly, as if she were almost sorry.

Piper felt her heart sink. "Why?" she asked.

She winced, then continued. "I've got orders. And I have no choice but to obey them."

And with that she attacked.

* * *

**Frank**

"Been flying for long?" Frank asked the pilot.

"Fifteen years," he announced proudly. "Why?"

Frank shrugged. "Just wondering," he admitted honestly.

Something crashed in the room behind them.

The attendant rose from her seat. "Maybe I should go check on things," she decided.

"No!" Frank blurted out quickly. She stared at him. "I mean… you can't go in there."

The attendant shrugged. "Why not?" she asked.

"Because…" Frank tried to think up an imaginable lie. "Because you could get hurt," he replied truthfully.

The attendant laughed a bit. "Why would I get hurt?" she asked as if it were a crazy notion.

"Because Percy and… Leo could be having an arm-wrestle," he said, and nodded solemnly. The sudden mental image of Percy pinning Leo's wimpy arm to the table while Leo pleaded to be released popped into his head, and he had to bite his tongue hard to stop from laughing. "They are very serious about their arm-wrestles."

She nodded doubtfully, then said almost shyly, "I've been meaning to ask… does Percy have a girlfriend?"

"Uh…" Frank remembered the blonde girl, and how she was always around him. "Yeah, I think so," he decided. "Sorry."

The attendant's face fell. "Oh, okay," she said. "That's all right. I was just wondering—"

"Yeah, okay," interrupted Frank, saving her from saying any more.

Another loud crash followed by a shout.

The attendant tried to look past Frank's large frame to the curtain splitting the two rooms. "Are you sure they're okay in there?" she asked. "It sounds awfully violent—"

Someone swore.

"Nothing, probably," Frank said hurriedly. Why had Hazel left him here to dry like this? She knew he was a terrible actor. "Why don't you sit—"

He was interrupted when the missing fifth Roman walked into the room casually, obviously not expecting more than three mortals. The attendant saw his sword and armour and obviously saw something much different; possibly a knife or a gun. She shrieked loudly, which caused for the co-pilot to swivel his head around and catch sight of him too.

"Terrorist!" she shrieked, scrambling back. "Please! Don't kill me! I just applied for college and haven't lived long enough to die!"

The Roman stared at her for a moment before resting his eyes on the demigod. And he laughed. "Frank Zhang," he said slowly. "I'm actually surprised to find you here. Who knew you had enough stupid ambition to side with the Greeks?"

Frank pulled out his sword, and the attendant shrieked, obviously seeing it as another gun. The pilot kept his eyes on the controls and remained unnaturally calm—probably seeing absolutely nothing because of the Mist—but the co-pilot stared open-mouthed in shock, unmoving.

The Roman laughed again, then gasped sarcastically. "Pulling a weapon on a full league member of Rome, are you now, Zhang?" he asked. "That'll earn you another six months on _probatio. _But, of course, when I'm done with you, there won't be enough _left_ to declare it to."

Frank knew he was going to get himself killed. Sword play was never his thing, and the airplane was so tightly compressed together there was no way he could knock an arrow and fire it before his _friend_ here sliced his head from his shoulders.

Turns out he didn't need to fight at all. Because guess who rushed into the room at the particular moment? Riptide slammed into the side of the Roman's head and he collapsed like a doll.

"Thanks, man," Frank told Percy.

"No problem," he replied, capping Riptide and stowing it away.

The attendant chose that moment to scream. "Who are you people!?" she shrieked, her hands to her face. "Why do you all have weapons!? Who were those guys who almost attacked us!? Are there more!? Are they the bad guys, or are you the bad guys!?"

"Them," Percy told her quickly.

She screamed again. "That's exactly what a bad guy would say!" she yelled.

"Uh…" said the co-pilot, still too shocked to say anything more.

"So would the good guys, which are us," said Annabeth, choosing that moment to make her appearance. She bore more scratches and bruises than Percy, and a fairly nasty one on her arm trickled blood dangerously. She made her way over to the attendant and sat her down in her seat while she whimpered. "Probably just some evil terrorists. Imagine how awesome this'll sound like on your Facebook page."

"Uh…" continued the co-pilot.

The attendant shrieked. "You people are insane!" she shouted. "Get me off of this plane! Get me off, get me off!" Frank noticed her tears of frustration, confusion and fear for the first time.

Annabeth turned to her boyfriend. "We need charmspeak to calm her down," she told him. "Get Piper."

Percy nodded and ran out.

"What is charmspeak?" the attendant yelled. "Is it a drug? Will it kill me? Are you going to kill me?" She had gotten past the shrieks and was now hyperventilating.

"Don't worry, you're just in shock," Annabeth reassured her. "Piper will be here any second and you'll feel much better—"

Percy ran back in. "Oh good," said Annabeth, then he was missing the person he had gone for. "Where's Piper?"

He winced. "Yeah, we may have a problem with that," he said.

Frank's face fell, as did Annabeth's. "Oh no," she muttered.

* * *

**Uh oh? Uh oh!**

**Anyway, Leo and Piper's fight with Gwen will be in the next chapter instead of this one. Our action-craved readers are disappointed.**

**(PS: Who has seen ****_What Does the Fox Say_**** on YouTube? New Gangnam Style over here, everybody!)**


	43. China and Pressure Problems

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

_**Mourner: **_**Oh, really? I didn't notice that. 9/11 was horrible and still impacts many people around the globe, even after 12 years. Prayers.**

_**donavinspike17: **_**Oh, thank you so much! That's really nice. Happy Birthday! (::) (::) [birthday cookies]**

**And, gods! We're nearly at a 100 favourites! Woohoo! 100 different people all like my story, not including all you wonderful guests! (Oh, gods, more than a hundred people... Excuse me while I puke in that random bucket over there.)**

* * *

**Piper**

Gwen swung the blade. Leo fell backwards behind a large box filled with antique china plates, saving him from decapitation. Piper grabbed the lid off the box and used it as a shield for when Gwen struck toward her.

The blade tore the plastic neatly in two.

Her shield now useless, Piper dropped the two halves of the lid and scurried back. The sword missed her by inches, striking the side of the plane instead.

Leo reached into the box and pulled out a plate. "Would it matter?" he asked Piper, mimicking slamming it on the ground.

"Don't care," she replied.

So he stood and hurled the plate right at Gwen, and Piper noticed steam coming off of it. She thrust her blade right through the plate, shattering it into a million tiny pieces. But the force drew her back a step. Piper took initiative and threw a plate of her own. It fell to the right, not even close to her target.

Gwen dodged around another plate, letting it smash into pieces on the wall behind her. She stepped forward and lashed a kick out at the box, sending it flying into Leo and Piper. Some of the plates chipped. Most of them broke.

Leo went to the left, Piper to the right. Splitting up was a tactic they had been taught at CHB. If it was two against one, make them fight one while the other had some time to rest and maybe have some tea.

Gwen realized what they were doing as well. She went for the weaker one, which was a mistake on the Greeks' part because the continuation of the lesson always said _make sure they fight the stronger of the two._

Piper barely had time to shout out as the blade came down on to her. She ducked underneath it and stumbled out of range. But (typically) she tripped ober her own feet in her haste and fell backwards. Blindly she reached out for the nearest thing—her missed china plate—and slammed it in Gwen's face.

The plate shattered, and time seemed to freeze.

Gwen dropped her sword, letting it clang loudly on the plane floor, using both hands to hold her face. Piper instantly felt awful.

"Gods, I'm so sorry," she said as Leo ran over and snatched the sword off the ground, holding it at Gwen's chest not so steadily.

Gwen lowered her arms slightly, revealing a bleeding lip and a jagged cut across her cheek. Her nose seemed to be broken. "That hurt," she said slowly.

"Well, in our defence you attacked us first," Leo pointed out.

In one swift motion Gwen kicked towards her sword, using her shin guards to knock it out of the way. She dived off in its direction and scooped it up from the ground, aiming the tip at a surprised Piper and Leo.

"That _really _hurt," she said again.

BAM! The door behind her swung open and caught her unawares, tripping her forward. As she stumbled, Leo smashed one last plate down on her head.

"Don't regret _that," _he announced as Gwen fell, unconscious.

Percy, Annabeth, and the others appeared at the doorway. "Piper, you're needed to calm down the mortals," Annabeth announced. She nodded and followed her out of the room. Percy helped Leo drag Gwen out into the main area of the plane.

Once the mortals were taken care of, the Greeks met up in the common lounge. "We still have one problem, and a new one just arose," Annabeth announced. "The gryphons are still flying outside, and the Romans will be expecting their little group to return."

"Well, there isn't anything we can do about the last one," said Frank.

"Or maybe we can," said Piper. "When Gwen was attacking us, she said that she only intended to slow us down. Maybe we can change course, and they'll think that the Romans are leading us somewhere else."

"It's an idea," Annabeth admitted. "But we have no choice but to continue with our plan to lead the gryphons away, though. Did you get the valuables?"

Leo and Piper nodded.

"Alright. Fine. But how do we do that?" Frank asked.

Annabeth seemed to hesitate. "We need someone to stick their head out the window and throw the gems away," she announced.

Percy raised his hand. "I call not being that person," he said.

"You're serious?" Leo asked. "Like… serious? I'm no physics techie, but I'm smart enough to know that if you do that, you get sucked out of the plane and never seen again."

Annabeth nodded. "That's our problem," she said. "It can't be done. The Romans must have used magic to get in, because it's physically impossible to open an airplane door mid-flight, because of pressure and whatever. We_ could_ do it, but we don't have magic on us right now."

Piper sighed. "Would have been nice to know this before I went through all the trouble of collecting the valuables," she muttered.

"We're going to have to lose them somehow else," Annabeth announced. She looked around in defeat. "Any ideas?"

No one spoke up, except for Hazel.

"I might be able to do something," she announced. "We're flying over New Mexico, right? There's lots of gold over here. Just get the plane closer to the ground."

"But gold _in the ground," _Piper told her. "That won't help us."

"Just trust me," Hazel said, looking her in the eye.

"…Fine," decided Annabeth. "Piper, tell the pilot the change of plans."

* * *

**Yeah, it wasn't until AFTER I did my research that I discovered opening the door on a commercial airplane is impossible.**

**Now, children, this is why you do your homework BEFORE the test and not after.**

**-o-O-o-**

**ALSO I HAVE SOME NEWS THAT IS SO BIG IT HAD TO BE SECTIONED OFF FROM THE REST OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTE! AND IT'S WONDERFUL NEWS SO BE PREPARED FOR HAPPINESS! **

**I'm not going to be updating as often from now on.**

**"WHAT?" you say. "HOW ON EARTH IS THIS GOOD NEWS BOOKWORM _[censored censored censored]_!?"**

**Well, I'm starting a new story for HoO, which I'm sure you guys will love because it is AMAZING. It's called Dumb Ways To Die, and guess what it's about! Dumb Ways to Die. You know that song? The story's basically one oneshot per dumb way to die. You guys'll love it because I'm updating one chapter per day, every day until HoH comes out. **

**That's how perfect I timed this.**

**-o-O-o-**

**Review! Please? Whoever does gets a cookie! (::) (::)**


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